I endeavor to say that kuche and cake aren’t directly equivalent, despite what the translation dictionaries might say.

Most of traditional leavened kuchen won’t be called cakes in Brazil and I suspect they won’t be called cakes in the U.S. either.

Now, given their nature, many states with strong German influence in Brazil won’t call them bread either, instead using the words cuca or cuque (which is really just a Portuguese friendly way of saying kuche). But most of Brazil just groups them together with other recipes of sweet bread.

Simply put, in English they are bread. If you got issues with that, strap your pitchforks to a few V-2s and have at it.