The folks I know fry the bannock, which is why I asked.
I've had it fried and I've had it wrapped around a stick and cooked over a campfire. I've never personally seen it baked and it most definitely is not cake-like. It's more like a tender flatbread. I've had bannock at the home of a Métis school chum (when we were in grade school, her mum was Cree, I think it was made with real lard) and I've had it prepared by a canoe outfitter while on a 10-day wilderness trip up north (not sure what the fat source was there, but his wife made all sorts of scratch mixes for his trips, lots of dehydrated foods, deer jerky, etc.). Okay, now *I* have to find a recipe...