Bake-meats

Bake-meats is an archaic English term for baked provisions or confections prepared by a baker. It appears in Genesis 40:17 in the account of the chief baker's dream while imprisoned with Joseph in Egypt: he dreamed of three baskets of white bread on his head, with the top basket containing all manner of bake-meats (works of the baker) for Pharaoh, which birds were eating. Joseph's interpretation of the dream — the three baskets representing three days, after which Pharaoh would hang the baker and birds would eat his flesh — was fulfilled precisely on Pharaoh's birthday.

The term represents the range of goods a royal court baker would prepare: fine breads, pastries, and confections. The contrast between the cupbearer's dream (pressing grapes into Pharaoh's cup) and the baker's dream (birds consuming the provisions before they reach Pharaoh) underlies the contrasting interpretations Joseph gave — restoration to office for the one, death for the other.