Why is Beach ビーチ and not ビーチュ, why is Cake ケーキ and not ケーク?

Question

The latter sounds better, in my opinion. But is that just my opinion?

Answer 1

ビーチ for beach is regular, but ケーキ for cake needs some explanation.

English //tʃ// and //dʒ// stand as closing consonant are always transcribed as チ and ジ, contrary to //ʃ// in the same position as シュ (with a handful of exception, such as サッシ "sash"). This is perhaps related to rare presence of チュ and ジュ as short syllables in Japanese words. Note that, however, similar consonants in German and French are usually transcribed as チュ and ジュ.

English //-ɪk// ending first had been transcribed -キ, reflecting the fact that the consonant is slightly palatalized because of preceding vowel value. After systematic transcription system was established, all //-k// have been automatically replaced with ク, but old words that have already taken root never changed. As a result:

• ケーキ "cake" ←→ no counterpart
• ストライキ "labor strike" ←→ ストライク "(other) strike"
• ステーキ "steak" ←→ ステイク "stake(-holder)"
• ブレーキ "brake" ←→ ブレーク/ブレイク "break"
• レーキ "rake", "lake pigment" ←→ レイク "lake"
• ミルクセーキ "(traditional) milk shake" ←→ シェーキ (Lotteria) ←→ シェイク (McDonald's)

cf. "makeup": メーキャップ (1M hits) vs メイクアップ (14M hits) vs メークアップ (463k hits)

Answer 2

I don't know if this answers your question and not sure which sounds better to me but I guess words that end with ch tend to be pronounced チ instead of チュ.

For example,

• teach ティーチ
• coach　コーチ
• bleach　ブリーチ
• reach　リーチ
• touch　タッチ
• match　マッチ

and words that end with ke is pronounced either ク or キ　but I see more ク

For example,

• lake レイク
• bake ベイク
• fake　フェイク
• make　メイク
• take　テイク
• like ライク
• joke　ジョーク
• cake　ケーキ
• brake　ブレーキ