Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?

I dreamt last night...

I was a detective working with my partner on a mysterious murder. A young black woman was abducted in broad daylight while walking from a barbershop to her high school gymnasium. The two buildings are less than 400 meters apart. For the duration of the case we were staying at someone's house in town, I think it was John Goodman, but I could be wrong. I think he was a cross between John Goodman and my dad.
One night I fall asleep at this man's house and I have a dream. That's right, in my dream I fall asleep and have a dream. When I wake up, my partner is doing Tai Chi in the living room. I ask him how he can wake up so early and he tells me no matter how early I wake up he'll always be awake before me. So as he's doing his Tai Chi he asks me about my dream.
I tell him that in this dream, a woman stands behind a table whereupon sits a giant, frosted cake. Her face is painted like a Geisha and she's holding a giant knife. My perspective is something like the camera on a cooking show. The woman then sticks the knife into the very edge of the cake and proceeds to peel off the frosting on the edge of the cake like it was an orange peel. The cake underneath is a deep yellow-orange color. She says something which implies it was my idea to remove the frosting because I want a piece of cake with no frosting. After she peels away all the frosting she plunges her face into the top of the cake. She lifts her head and I can see that her makeup is running down her face. The cake is absolutely ruined, smashed into little pieces. She reaches into the pile of cake and pulls out a flat, smooth crystal heart that's about 5 inches tall. Within this heart is etched (probably with lasers) the two masks that represent theater (the smiling mask and the frowning mask).
And then I woke up (from my dream within a dream). I told my partner this story and he asked me for more detail, implying that this dream had some great importance to our case.
I told him I couldn't remember anything else and then I woke up (for real).


Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream.
-E.A. POE