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["Preheat the oven to 350u00b0F. Butter two 13x9x2 inch baking pans; line bottoms with waxed or parchment paper and butter the paper. Flour the pans (you can ""flour"" pans for chocolate cake with cocoa powder, if you like) and tap out excess.", "Whisk together boiling water and cocoa until smooth. Then whisk in the milk and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.", "If possible in a standing mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, beat in the flour mixture in 3 batches and the cocoa mixture in 2, alternating flour-cocoa-flour-cocoa-flour. The batter may look curdled.", "Pour half of the batter into each pan and smooth tops. Bake in the middle of the oven until a tester comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the pan, 25-35 minutes. Turn the cakes onto racks to cool completely.", "Make frosting: melt the chopped chocolate in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Cool to room temperature. Beat together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy (I could not find whipped cream cheese in the store, so I just whipped it at home until it looked a little lighter and fluffier before adding the butter). Add the cooled chocolate and the remaining ingredients and beat until thoroughly combined.", "Assemble cake only when the cake layers have cooled completely.", "(I'd like to add a note about the recipes in", ": for a long time I stupidly assumed they were just window dressing, but they are in fact very good, and they work.)"]
