Right now, I have time that most people can only dream about. I think it's only right that I spend that time doing things worthwhile. Things like learning skills that people with less time on their hands would love to learn, but can't. Obviously, some skills will take longer to learn than others. The longest amount of time I plan to spend on a skill is a week (seven days). Clearly, I won't be able to master anything, but I will learn some stuff, which will be cool. I am relying on you to suggest skills that you have always wanted to learn but have never had time to, so that you can watch me try to learn them instead.

Latest Skill Learned: Fancy Cake


It took way longer than I anticipated, but the end of the fancy cake run on Who is Mark Mathleton? has come to an end. I bid thee adieu, fancy cake. You were a mistress I will not forget. read more...

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Robot Vision

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I want to start by apologizing for a weeks absence. I just did not foresee being as busy as I have been since last posting.

Don’t worry though, I have been researching some robots and doing my best to secure parts and learn how to work with them

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Unfortunately, I don’t have too much else to report. Normally I would give you a background on the skill that is building robots, but I haven’t been able to get to the library to truly research its history. Hopefully in the next couple of days that will happen. Until then, please allow me to reset the timer for a couple of days and put something together for you.

I promise not to disappoint. You’ll get something fantastic. I give you my word.

Mathleton Making Strides

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Sorry for the delay after the most recent poll ended. It was a busy weekend. I’m getting sick now, but am rearing to get started building my very own robot.

Some people have been making suggestions as to the type of robot I make. A friend suggested that I re-program a roomba and use that. Another friend suggested boob-a-tron , while another suggested that I build a battlebot. These are all great suggestions and will all take some time to research and probably a good deal of money to create. If only Computerman (check out Channel101.com for more awesome things) would just show up, this skill would become much, much easier. If you have a favorite robot that you’d like to see me try and create, leave a comment here or on our Facebook page and I will do my best to appease you.

Otherwise, check back for updates as I begin this week-long journey towards robot (semi, kind of) mastery.

Oh, and I almost forgot to let you know that there is a new poll up. Make sure you vote and also make sure you’re leaving suggestions for future skills. None of this is possible without you!

Skrim Skram Cake Mastery

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It took way longer than I anticipated, but the end of the fancy cake run on Who is Mark Mathleton? has come to an end. I bid thee adieu, fancy cake. You were a mistress I will not forget.

In all seriousness, for my first attempt at cake decorating I don’t think I did too horribly. The hardest part of the entire endeavor was, without a doubt, covering the cake in fondant. If I were to make more fancy cakes in the future, I would probably choose to add some food coloring to the fondant. Using white and attempting to paint over it with black was a rookie mistake. The impurities in the fondant are much more noticeable in white than say, I don’t know, brown?

That would have been an ugly cake.

During my attempts at painting the cake, I started finding all of these message boards of people freaking out about trying to paint fondant, especially when they were trying to paint it black. I would say it took the majority of the cake, but by the time I was painting the outline of the letters, I was able to figure out the right mixture of vodka to gel food coloring so that the color stayed consistent.

I’m going to post a couple of pictures of the cake, and of course the video will be included in this post. I wouldn’t leave you without that.

I think that that the best thing about cake decorating is that even though I’ve spent the past few days reading up on it and practicing the craft, I still feel like I know nothing about it. There is so much that goes into it. As I was working in the kitchen of my parents’ house, my mom mentioned that if nothing else, through this blog, I’m going to start to truly respect people that have identifiable skills.

I can honestly say that my respect for people that can krump, puppeteer, parkour, and decorate cakes has gone through the roof. Not only are these skills valuable to have, but while I’ve been practicing them, I’ve been excited to wake up and get to work. I respect people that get excited about doing something they love.

I’m excited to find out what I’ll be doing next.

If you haven’t already, take a minute to like Who is Mark Mathleton? on Facebook, and tell your friends!

That’s the Way it Goes

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Here we are. I’ve had four days to study and think about some designs for this fancy cake. Today is the day that I start baking. I know you’re excited and waiting with baited breath.

Don’t pass out. It will be a couple of days before anyone sees the final project. I learned through my research that the base of the cake, the actual cake itself needs to cool for about a day before it’s ready to be fancified.

I think now might be a great time to inundate you with facts about cake so that you can go to your cousin’s birthday party and when the conversation with your relatives starts to dry up, you can start spouting off all of the things you learned about the delicious desert you use to celebrate all of your favorite days of the year. Just be sure to mention where you learned all of it.

The cake, as we know it today took form sometime in the 17th century. Prior to the 17th century, cakes most important ingredient, sugar, was a rare commodity. With the arrival of sugar, we saw the arrival of our favorite birthday desert. There’s a really interesting article about Britain’s sugar consumption here that I highly recommend if you’re interested in the topic.

Cake decorating has shown a huge increase in popularity over the last decade or so, and I imagine that this is largely due to an increase in television programming (Ace of Cakes, Ultimate Cake-Off, Amazing Wedding Cakes, Cake Boss, etc.) and the people at cakedecoratingart.com, make a compelling case for why it’s gained popularity as well. I particularly enjoy the argument that decorating a cake is the closest thing any of us have to edible art.

Man, would I love to eat some of Andy Warhol’s work.

It makes so much sense now that I’ve read about it, but did you know that the wedding cake ceremony where the bride and groom cut the white cake together is symbolic for what the bride and groom are going to do theoretically (if you’re good christian boys and girls) for the first time later that evening? Yea, that’s right.

At times while doing research on some of the skills I’ve learned, I have felt it necessary to defend what I’m working on as a skill. I don’t think that it’s necessary with cake decorating. I’m almost certain that everyone has seen an awesome cake at some point in time. And anyone that’s ever gotten married or been involved in organizing a wedding or if you’ve seen Father of the Bride, knows for certain that you can’t just go to anyone for the perfect cake.

Learning how to decorate a cake may not leave me broken and scarred like parkour, or waking up to creepy puppets staring at me, or traveling down a heavily travelled road showing off sweet dance moves, but it is definitely a potentially valuable skill that I’ll be able to take with me through life.

I leave you now with a some of the plans I’ve drawn up over the past few days.


Also, take a second to like Who is Mark Mathleton? on Facebook. Make sure you enjoy your day!

A Classy Approach

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No need to worry. I haven’t quit on W.I.M.M. Some things came up and I was unable to close the poll at 7 PM last evening. Fortunately, fancy cakes had really run away with it, and anyone that voted after 7 didn’t change the overall outcome.

And so with that, I announce the next skill to be learned on Who is Mark Mathleton!

That’s right. I’ll be making a fancy cake in four days. Now, there is a slight obstacle standing in the way, as I have scheduled a trip to Atlantic City on Friday evening. I will be returning on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, I think that I can still make it work, and have the cake ready by Sunday. We’re going to officially start this challenge tomorrow.

I suggest visiting tomorrow for some historical information on cake and its uses throughout time, as well as some designs that I will dream up for Mathleton possibilities. Also, notice the new social media links inserted below the video and poll! It would be awesome if you could like Who is Mark Mathleton? on Facebook, and follow along on Twitter. There’s also an RSS feed if you feel so inclined.