hardbake

plural hardbakes

1. countableuncountableA hard confection made of boiled brown sugar or molasses with almonds, flavoured with orange or lemon juice, similar to a nougat.

   a washerwoman, who exposes hard-bake for sale in her parlor-window

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 27, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   They both had a taste for painting theatrical characters; for hard bake and raspberry tarts; for sliding and skating in the Regent's Park and the Serpentine, when the weather permitted; for going to the play, whither they were often conducted, by Mr. Osborne's orders, by Rowson, Master George's appointed body-servant, with whom they sat in great comfort in the pit.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Harmless improving books were provided for the crew to read, and vanilla ices, sugar-plums, hardbake and raspberry jam were served out every day with a liberal hand.

   1908, William Schwenck Gilbert, The Pinafore Picture Book, Chapter 1