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cake

English translation: cake [may be typically fruit-cake or savoury loaf]

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:cake
English translation:cake [may be typically fruit-cake or savoury loaf]
Entered by: Tony M

05:26 Jan 16, 2020
French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Food & Drink
French term or phrase: cake
This is on a B&B breakfast menu, alongside chouquettes, galettes and brioche. "Cake" on its own conjures up (for me) something I wouldn't expect to find at breakfast; "plain cake" doesn't sound very appetising...
Vigby
loaf or bar cake
Explanation:
For me, a "cake" is a cake cooked in a loaf tin, which is called a loaf cake or a bar cake, but it doesn't give any indication of what kind of cake it is. "Cakes" can also be savoury - the first "cake" I came across was a "cake aux olives".

Since this is breakfast, this might mean a banana-bread sort of thing - banana "bread" these days is usually just a loaf cake. And maybe saying loaf cake will sound better as a breakfast item, but unless you check you can't commit to anything about what kind of cake it is.
Selected response from:

Melissa McMahon
Australia
Local time: 04:50
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4cake
Tony M
3 +4loaf or bar cake
Melissa McMahon
5 -1Cake aux fruits confits
Bruno Moynié
3Madeira-type cake
MoiraB


Discussion entries: 6





  

Answers


3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Madeira-type cake


Explanation:
Or Madeira-style cake. Best approximation I can think of. It's usually plain Madeira cake, but I've seen marbled as well. But it really depends on the establishment... Could be a light fruit cake.

MoiraB
France
Local time: 20:50
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks for your contribution. This was indeed one solution I thought of!

Asker: I did manage to speak directly to the client in the end: she'd decided to remove "cake" from the menu herself - precisely because it was too unclear a term!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Tony M: Over-translation. A totally plain (or Madeira-like) cake would generally be called a 'quatre-quarts' etc., it's almost always used as 'cake aux ...' something or other.
13 mins
  -> Oh well, we clearly frequent different types of hotels ;-) I suspect "cake" might be the simplest solution after all...
agree  Jennifer White: years ago I was offered a "petit cake" - it was a madeira- sponge type thing
10 hrs
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
cake


Explanation:
Because of the ambiguity, and the much more serious risk of over-interpretation, which could make some solutyions just plain wrong in some cases, I think your only safe bet, unless you can check with the establishment itself, is to stick with the equally non-committal 'cake' in EN too. It covers a wider range of possibilities than the FR, but at least this means any over-interpretation will be in the mind of the reader, and not the translator's fault!

Tony M
France
Local time: 20:50
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 179
Grading comment
Thanks for this - and explaining how you got there!
Notes to answerer
Asker:

Asker: I did manage to speak directly to the client in the end: she'd decided to remove "cake" from the menu herself - precisely because it was too unclear a term!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Nathalie Joffre: Yes in France, a "cake" (in French) can be eaten at breakfast, and there are multiple cakes (chocolate, plain, salted...)
1 hr
  -> Merci, Nathalie !
agree  Cyril Tollari: I think this is safe, but you would assume the 'cake' is sweet here?
2 hrs
  -> Merci, Cyril ! No, that's the beauty of keeping the ambiguity in EN — though with the other items on this FR menu, I'd surmise it probably was!
agree  Jennifer White: yes, have commented on the 2nd (?) post.
10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Jennifer! (duplicate question has been removed)
agree  erwan-l
1 day 2 hrs
  -> Merci, Erwan !
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
loaf or bar cake


Explanation:
For me, a "cake" is a cake cooked in a loaf tin, which is called a loaf cake or a bar cake, but it doesn't give any indication of what kind of cake it is. "Cakes" can also be savoury - the first "cake" I came across was a "cake aux olives".

Since this is breakfast, this might mean a banana-bread sort of thing - banana "bread" these days is usually just a loaf cake. And maybe saying loaf cake will sound better as a breakfast item, but unless you check you can't commit to anything about what kind of cake it is.

Melissa McMahon
Australia
Local time: 04:50
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 10
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
Notes to answerer
Asker: I was tempted, but eventually felt this would be too specific

Asker: I did manage to speak directly to the client in the end: she'd decided to remove "cake" from the menu herself - precisely because it was too unclear a term!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Philippa Smith: Yes - "loaf cake" would have been my suggestion. :-)
1 hr
  -> Thanks Philippa!
agree  Cyril Tollari
1 hr
  -> thanks Cyril
neutral  Tony M: I don't think either of these terms would sound familiar (or appetizing!) to an EN-GB reader
7 hrs
  -> I take your point, but I feel like something needs to indicate this is not cream cake, mud cake, sponge cake... the ideal would be to find out exactly what sort of "cake" it is.
agree  GILLES MEUNIER
19 hrs
agree  Rebecca Breekveldt: Yes, loaf cake or maybe even pound cake would be my suggestion.
1 day 1 hr
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): -1
Cake aux fruits confits


Explanation:
In French the ONLY time we use “ un cake” points to a candied fruit cake. Nothing else .

Bruno Moynié
Canada
Local time: 14:50
Native speaker of: French
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks for your contribution!

Asker: I did manage to speak directly to the client in the end: she'd decided to remove "cake" from the menu herself - precisely because it was too unclear a term!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Melanie Kathan: Maybe in Canada, but not in France, where you can get cake aux olives, cake au thon, cake au chevre....
56 mins
  -> Bien vu Mélanie! Mais c’est pour cela que j’ai suggéré “cake aux fruits confits” il me semblait que l’on ne parlait ici que de desserts...
neutral  Tony M: Desserts — pour le menu petit-déj ?
10 hrs
  -> It’s about context indeed !What is definite is that in France “un cake” first evoques traditionally a candied fruit cake that you would typically have with tea or coffee. And, by extension, a savoury form as in with olives (no breakfast item for sure).
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