Woman Who Requested Mariah Carey Cake Got Marie Curie Instead

Live Science ^ | June 17, 2019 09:23am ET | Mindy Weisberger,

[BenLurkin]

A woman in England who recently celebrated her birthday requested a cake decorated with a picture of her favorite singer, Mariah Carey. However the birthday girl was probably feeling emotions when she saw the result, which was topped not with the singer of "Hero" but with the face of one of science's heroes: Marie Curie, who conducted groundbreaking work on radioactivity.

As a cake topper, the renowned scientist looked "very festive," said writer Harriet Alida Lye, who tweeted a photo of the cake on June 14.

Carey's prowess as a musician is notable: She is a world-renowned recording artist who earned five Grammy Awards since the release of her debut album in 1990.

However, Curie's accomplishments are arguably just as cake-worthy. She discovered the first evidence of radioactivity, a feat that in 1903 earned Curie and her husband Pierre Curie the Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded jointly with the French physicist Henri Becquerel.

[gundog]

It’s the radium in the frosting that sells it. Turn out the lights and her face glows.

[BenLurkin]

Cool!

[Trump.Deplorable]

That is one awesome cake

[reg45]

Two Nobel Prizes, one in Physics and one in Chemistry is more significant than some mediocre music.

[Bullish]

So, she got a historic woman with brains instead of a ditzy, drug addled dingbat?

[right way right]

This is funny.

[alexander_busek]

Blame the immigrant Polish baker!

Regards,

[yesthatjallen]

It looks like they kept the cake and made the best of it and had a proper laugh.

Good job.

[Jonty30]

Free education.

[Billthedrill]

Ah, yes, Marie Curie, woman of action. Don't laugh, when WWI broke out she outfitted a van with what was then a state-of-the-art X-ray unit and set out for the front with her daughter. That would be Irene Joliot-Curie, who must have thought her Mum was nuts but went along. She, incidentally, was awarded a Nobel Prize as well, in chemistry, for identifying what she and her husband Frederic called "artificial radiation", which we call Beta decay. Counting her husband and her father, that's four Nobels in one family. Not bad, not bad...

[BenLurkin]

You left off "athlete"

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yep, hopefully they appreciate getting the history lesson. Maybe the cake requester didn’t even know about Madame Curie.

[Billthedrill]

Actually, five Nobels, counting Marie’s two. Damn...

[Equine1952]

Happy Birthday to the English lady. Given my cure from prostate cancer using radiation therapy. My senitiments lay with Marie more than Mariah. I doubt playing Ms Carey’s music would have done anything but make my ears feel good. Ms Curie’s efforts though may haves saved my life. Hooray for all three ladies. 👍

[Fiji Hill]

Given my cure from prostate cancer using radiation therapy. My sentiments lay with Marie more than Mariah.

Yes, indeed. I've never even heard of Mariah Carey.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Wow! Looks amazing!

[lee martell]

It takes a special kind of baker to make a mistake like that.
How frequently do they get people coming in requesting a Marie Currie Cake? And then one done in funereal black too.
At least the customer seemed to think it was amusing.

What if that happened in Chicago, with Quanquishia and LaMeeshia ready to pick up their cake? Katy bar the door!

[Rastus]

Think about the baker making the effort to track down a photo to screen onto the cake. “Hey, I think this photo will work! How nice to be making a cake for a history lover!”