Buttermilk Cake with Fresh Strawberries and Cream

I have made this cake many, many times, and I love it. The finished cake always looks spectacular, and it tastes delicious. Be warned, however, that it does not look spectacular when you transport it -- assembled in all four layers of lusciousness -- to South Beach.

I recognize what an ambitious idea it was to imagine that I could really get it there in all of its grandeur. But it was my dear friend Kimi's birthday, and I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She was here visiting all the way from California, so there you go. I have brought the cake layers, strawberries, and cream to friends' houses several times in the past to assemble, but I didn't really see how I could put it together at South Beach without getting sand in it. How bad could it really be, I thought? Well, we didn't even make it out of Friday Harbor Labs before the top layers slid off into my lap. Messy, messy. As I type, I am regretting that we did not get even a single photo of this cake wreck. At the time, I just couldn't imagine recording it. I looked through the pictures from the night thinking someone else might have had the good sense to recognize that I'd be able to laugh about it later, but no luck. The only picture I could find that included cake was of Kimi attempting to beat the wind to blowing out the candle on the piece I had to slice and save for her before the whole cake was gone.

On a positive note, it still tasted great. I used a combination of Sharalyn's duck and chicken eggs, which added height and resulted in a super-moist cake (at least I'm attributing it to the eggs; it was way more moist than it's ever been before). Also, some kids decided to try and improve things by adding blueberries that someone else had brought. They made it look so patriotic that I realized that this would be a great Fourth of July cake. So, maybe we'll have it next Fourth of July. At home!