CAGradientLayer behind self.layer appearing above - objective-c

Question

I'm trying to make a custom UIButton class, except, when drawing the background of the button, and adding it as a sublayer using insertSubLayer behind: method, it still appears infront of the UIButton Textlabel.
My code is posted below, Any help would be greatly appreciated.
CALayer *layer = self.layer;
layer.cornerRadius = 3.0f;
layer.masksToBounds = YES;
layer.borderWidth = 1.0f;
layer.borderColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.5f alpha:0.5f].CGColor;
self.titleLabel.textColor = [UIColor greenColor];
//layer.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor;
bgColor = [CAGradientLayer layer];
bgColor.frame = self.layer.bounds;
self.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1 alpha:1];
bgColor.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
(id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.97f alpha:1].CGColor,
(id)[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.87f alpha:1].CGColor,
nil];
bgColor.locations = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.0f],
[NSNumber numberWithFloat:1],
nil];
[self.layer addSublayer:bgColor];
[self.layer insertSublayer:bgColor below:layer];

Answer 1

self.layer and layer in your code point to the same object. You're asking the layer to insert a sublayer behind itself - this is not possible. Sublayers are contained within the parent layer. Try
[self.layer insertSublayer:bgColor atIndex:0];
Instead of
[self.layer addSublayer:bgColor];
[self.layer insertSublayer:bgColor below:layer];
This will add the gradient at the lowest possible point in the layer hierarchy of your button.