Red Velvet Cake

I know, red food coloring causes cancer, but this cake is so much fun! This recipe caught my eye because the guy who posted said that you can use less red food coloring and even leave it out if you want. And did I mention it has cocoa powder in it? I'm excited to try it out!

Here's the Link: http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Red-Velvet-Cake-%E2%80%93-Red-Devil-Cake-%E2%80%93-Fire-Engine-Red-Cake/6946/

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups Cake Flour
1 1/2 Cup sugar
1 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup butter
1 TB Natural Cocoa Powder (Not Dutch)
1 tsp Vanilla (Bourbon)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Apple cider vinegar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Salt
optional – 1/2 oz red food coloring (try to find one made with red #40 allura ONLY)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350.
Line the bottoms of 2 9-inch cake pans with parchment rounds.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Whisk together the Flour and Salt.
Combine the Cocoa, Vanilla and Red food color (If you are forgoing the food color, whisk the cocoa into the flour and salt mixture and add the vanilla to the buttermilk).
Add eggs to the creamed butter mixture and beat a little longer, until well combined.
Add the cocoa mixture and mix 30 seconds, just until color becomes uniform.
Add Buttermilk and flour mixture, alternating, beginning and ending with the buttermilk.
Measure 1 tsp Baking Soda into a small dish, add the Cider Vinegar and let it foam a little.
Add to the cake batter and incorporate with a few quick strokes.
Working quickly, so you don’t loose the leavening power of the soda, divide the batter between 2 cake pans.
Bake cake for 35–40 minutes or until it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes, turn cakes out onto a cooling rack.
Once cooled to room temp, place in the refrigerator for 1 hour, this will make frosting easier.
Frost with your choice of Traditional Butter Roux (Ermine) frosting, Cream Cheese frosting or any of the actual Butter Creams be it Italian, Swiss, French or American.