I was given the task of making an American/July 4th themed cake for my wife’s family reunion this weekend, but then we later realized we would also be celebrating a special 15th birthday at the same time. I wanted to keep the American flag color scheme to match the party decor my wife had already purchased, but wanted the design to be clean and sophisticated – not cheesy. Bottom tier is a ruffle/scallop technique inspired by Jessica Harris and top tier was achieved with a mesh stripe stencil from Evil cake genius. I also wanted to incorporate a wafer paper flower, so I used a tutorial by Stevi Auble of Hey there cupcake and thanks to the amazing ladies at Acrylic Art Design for making the awesome custom topper….it totally MADE the cake! Cake flavors: Bottom tier was chocolate fudge cake filled with dulce de leche Swiss meringue buttercream and crushed peanuts & pretzels covered in dark chocolate ganache. Top tier was vanilla cake filled with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream covered in white chocolate ganache!!