My mom's 60th birthday cake

My mom just turned 60 yesterday. Happy Birthday, Mom! We threw a surprise party for her on Monday night with some of her close church friends. I decided that since this was a milestone birthday I would make her an extra special cake. One day when I was perusing the cooking blogs I follow, I found a recipe for an Autumn Cake, but I thought it sounded so cool that I had to try it even though it is winter. Here is a link to the site. It is a sweet potato ginger spice cake. It was very time consuming, but worth every second!
First I baked the cake. Sorry, I didn't think to take pictures of this part. I let that cool overnight in the fridge. The next day I prepared the filling (toasted marshmallow) and the frosting (maple syrup swiss meringue buttercream).
Here is a picture of the toasted marshmallows right before they are blended into a gooey goodness.
Next, I worked on the maple syrup buttercream, which required lots and lots of butter.


Then I started assembling the cake. Did I mention this is my first time doing a layered cake with a smooth finish? All the other ones I have done I have had a design that would cover up my mistakes, but this one although it does have swirls on top it does show mistakes a lot easier.

Here is the bottom layer of frosting on the cake. Then I embellished it with swirls. I was really nervous because I didn't know how it would turn out since this was my first time making this cake.

Here is the final decorated cake.



I was pleased with the way it turned out. You can tell it was done by an amateur, but I think it is good for my first time.