Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
cake
English translation:
cake [may be typically fruit-cake or savoury loaf]
French term
cake
| 3 +4 | loaf or bar cake |
Melissa McMahon
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| 4 +4 | cake |
Tony M
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| 5 -1 | Cake aux fruits confits |
Bruno Moynié
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| 3 | Madeira-type cake |
MoiraB
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Jan 16, 2020 05:25: Karen Zaragoza changed "Language pair" from "French to English" to "English to French"
Jan 16, 2020 05:26: Karen Zaragoza changed "Vetting" from "Needs Vetting" to "Vet OK"
Jan 16, 2020 05:26: Karen Zaragoza changed "Kudoz queue" from "In queue" to "Public"
Jan 16, 2020 08:30: Tony M changed "Language pair" from "English to French" to "French to English"
Jan 16, 2020 08:35: Tony M changed "Language pair" from "French to English" to "English to French"
Jan 16, 2020 16:41: Tony M changed "Language pair" from "English to French" to "French to English"
Jan 27, 2020 17:15: Tony M Created KOG entry
PRO (1): Cyril Tollari
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Proposed translations
Australia
loaf or bar cake
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.
| I was tempted, but eventually felt this would be too specific |
| 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! |
| agree |
Philippa Smith
: Yes - "loaf cake" would have been my suggestion. :-)
1 hr
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Thanks Philippa!
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| agree |
Cyril Tollari
1 hr
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thanks Cyril
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| neutral |
Tony M
: I don't think either of these terms would sound familiar (or appetizing!) to an EN-GB reader
7 hrs
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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.
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| agree |
GILLES MEUNIER
19 hrs
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| agree |
Rebecca Breekveldt
: Yes, loaf cake or maybe even pound cake would be my suggestion.
1 day 1 hr
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Madeira-type cake
| Thanks for your contribution. This was indeed one solution I thought of! |
| 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! |
| 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
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Oh well, we clearly frequent different types of hotels ;-) I suspect "cake" might be the simplest solution after all...
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| agree |
Jennifer White
: years ago I was offered a "petit cake" - it was a madeira- sponge type thing
10 hrs
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cake
| 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! |
| 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
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Merci, Nathalie !
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| agree |
Cyril Tollari
: I think this is safe, but you would assume the 'cake' is sweet here?
2 hrs
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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!
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| agree |
Jennifer White
: yes, have commented on the 2nd (?) post.
10 hrs
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Thanks, Jennifer! (duplicate question has been removed)
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| agree |
erwan-l
1 day 2 hrs
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Merci, Erwan !
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Canada
Certified Translator | Traducteur agréé
Native in: French (Variants: Standard-France, Canadian)
Works in: English to French
Cake aux fruits confits
| Thanks for your contribution! |
| 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! |
| 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
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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...
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| neutral |
Tony M
: Desserts — pour le menu petit-déj ?
10 hrs
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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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Discussion
"Cake" are savoury if they're called something more like "cake aux olives". If not, to me they're sweet. Don't quote me on this as this depends on the region.
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/french-to-english/food-drink/6755...
If so, 'cake' can slobber quite a bibful, so it's almost impossible to know without being sure of what exactly it is.
Generally speaking, it wouldn't be surprising for this to be 'cake aux fruits', i.e. the FR version of 'fruit cake' — BUT you cannot automatically assume this, since it could also be a savoury cake that we would more usuall calll some kind of 'loaf': like a loaf with ham and olives, sun-dried tomatoes, tuna, chorizo, etc.
However, as this seems to be in the 'sweet' section, it might be a reasonable bet to assume it means 'fruit cake' — which would not be an unusual thing to see on a breakfast menu, in keeping with the other items in your list.