Woman Asks for Mariah Carey Birthday Cake, Gets Marie Curie Cake that Went Viral Instead

A writer took to social media over the weekend to share her cousin's hilariously "misunderstood" request for a Mariah Carey birthday-cake. Instead, her cousin got a Marie Curie cake that quickly went viral on Twitter.

All I Want for My Birthday Is...Marie Curie?

Over the weekend, while Twitter was probably still standing in line at Target, Harriet Alida Lye, a writer living in Toronto shared a picture of the birthday cake her cousin's co-workers in England got for her.

RELATED: 11 NOTABLE WOMEN SCIENTISTS WHO HAVE WON NOBEL PRIZES IN THEIR FIELDS

What her cousin asked for was a cake featuring the singer Mariah Carey, which her co-workers at the charity organization Hope for Chronic Conditions generously interpreted as a request for a cake featuring two-time Nobel Prize laureate Marie Curie, who looked about as excited to be on the birthday cake of some stranger as you would expect.

My cousin in England told her colleagues she wanted a Mariah Carey birthday cake. They misunderstood, and is the cake they made her instead. It’s Marie Curie, looking very festive. pic.twitter.com/LMHJnMATqD

— Harriet Alida Lye (@harrietalida) June 14, 2019

The birthday girl was a good sport about the wildly-off-the mark-yet-somehow-still-a-bullseye cake decoration.

Siobhan’s reaction to seeing the Marie Curie cake. She’s a volunteer secretary for this local charity. pic.twitter.com/XeO2kNnsUs

— Harriet Alida Lye (@harrietalida) June 17, 2019

Twitter being Twitter, of course, thought the cake was perfect the way it was, liking the original tweet more than 200k times as of Monday afternoon and retweeting it tens of thousands of times.

This is better. No shade to Mariah but come on.

— Sam Dalglish (@SamDalglish) June 14, 2019

It’s so sweet because I bet they were thinking “marie curie? Well if it’s what she wants...”

— Ms. Brooks™ (@TheREAL_MBrooks) June 15, 2019

Some couldn't help but make a couple of apropos, radioactivity puns before the day was out.

It really ought to be a yellow cake...

— Toby Irving (@tobyirving89) June 15, 2019

Checking the replies to make sure no one beat me to the “she looks radiant!” reply.

— James Curle (@JamesCurle) June 14, 2019

Others suspected that the "misunderstanding" was the perfect chance for her colleagues to get in a touch of good-natured fun with their coworker.

Oh they knew

— Babidi (@DohertiePete) June 14, 2019

It was almost certainly a birthday Lye's Mariah Carey-superfan cousin won't forget any time soon since even Mariah Carey herself got in on the fun, wishing the birthday girl a happy birthday.

This could've been me if only I hadn't failed remedial math ?‍♀️ happy birthday Siobhan!! ? https://t.co/Ffz69lTRkc

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) June 15, 2019

Lye certainly couldn't have predicted that her tweet would blow up the way it did, but she was humble over the attention it drew. Rather than promote a SoundCloud account or something like that, she instead took the charitable route and asked that people check out the work of her cousin's charity organization and to support their efforts instead.

Totally wild to see how far and wide this has spread (thanks @MariahCarey for your birthday wishes ?). My cousin volunteers at a charity called @HOPEforcc, and it was her colleague Liz who baked the cake. Learn more about the charity here: https://t.co/QQLq16MtJN

— Harriet Alida Lye (@harrietalida) June 17, 2019