The corner grocery birthday cake

It was my birthday a bit more than a month ago. I was waiting for the weekend to party, but as I was talking to my mom on the phone she insisted I spoil myself with a cake. It was 9pm - I wasn't about to make it from scratch. More importantly, my roommates had all moved out a couple days earlier and took all the baking pans.

Crap.

Trip to corner grocery store: a tiny, tiny place that overcharges on bare essentials for the local hippies who lack cars. I go in looking for something to bake in. The only thing they have a is a chocolate-graham-cracker pie crust. Fine.

Need something for cake. I have an unopened box of spice cake mix - sounds better than mixing my own. That just leaves frosting. I have powdered sugar lying around, and I have cream cheese in the fridge - five minutes later I've got cream cheese frosting. This is starting to sound good...

Pie crust is ready to go, about half-full with batter, in the oven for 20 minutes. Pull it out - now what the hell do I do? I do the obvious thing - I flip it over onto a plate and frost the crust which is now face-up. It's the most geometrical tank-like cake I've ever frosted.

Friends are outside. Moment of truth. We're all taking bites. "Holy s***", someone says, "This is the best cake I've ever eaten". Sure Enough, I finish one piece and I feel like I've eaten the richest thing my stomach could take. Everybody else was floored, too. Not bad for 20 minutes prep. It also looks like it was very difficult to prepare, since it's so perfectly shaped and intricately layered.

Got the idea? Spice cake + chocolate graham crust + cream cheese frosting = win.