Orange-flavoured layer cake with buttercream frostening and mixed berries

My partner, John, just had a birthday. It happened to fall on the day after my parents left after a week-long visit and on the same day we were leaving for a long weekend in Big Bear Lake. I had also just run the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon. In short, I was just too tired, sore, and busy to possibly make John a birthday cake. That was my story and I was sticking with it. So on the morning of his birthday, I slipped into Ralph's and purchased a white truffle cake. It looked like it would be good, and I relaxed that I was off the hook regarding John's birthday cake. Later that day when we went to eat it, however, we discovered it to be an extremely dry cake that simply wasn't worth the calories, no matter how badly we wanted a sugar fix. We threw Ralph's cake in the garbage and I pledged to make him a cake. I decided to make the Orange layer cake with buttercream frostening and berries which was pictured on the cover of the June 2006 issue of Bon Appetit. I made a couple minor changes such as turning it into a four layer cake rather than a two layer cake and used strawberry jam between two of the layers. I brushed an orange-flavoured syrup into each of the layers for an extra moist and tasty cake. The buttercream frostening was very rich, and I don't even want to stop and figure out how many calories it contained. I rationalized the fruit made the cake somewhat healthy, and besides, it was for a special occasion. And in fact, the fruit really did help to cut some of the richness. I think John was pleased with my efforts. The end result was a beautiful, fresh, moist, and delectable cake, worthy of the occasion.