Red, White, and... (where's the blue?)

The Red Velvet Cake has an interesting history. I remember my aunt telling me the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel story: A woman supposedly asked for the recipe for the wonderful dessert she'd just had, and was given the recipe, plus a big fat bill. So she decided to give the recipe to every person she could think of, since she'd paid such a price for it.
Well, that's just urban legend!
More details about this cake: Before the age of Dutch-processed cocoa powder, the unsweetened cocoa was not so alkaline. It's theorized that the inclusion of vinegar in the recipe turned the more acidic, old-style cocoa powder a reddish color. This probably prompted the name of "Devil's Food Cake" as well. Thanks to modern science, our modern cocoa powder is not so affected by the vinegar anymore, but we do love that red color, and that name, don't we?! So here comes red food coloring to the rescue! Ah, modern science...
I did try a Tyler Florence recipe for Red Velvet Beet Cake, using beets for color instead of food coloring; I do like the idea of healthier, more natural recipes. The Red Velvet Beet Cake didn't turn out red at all, but it was pretty good. I took the original recipe and... tweaked it. But of course! I found an easier method, processing the dry ingredients together to get the lumps of cocoa out, then stirring the dry ingredients into the processed raw beets. I then just had to stir the wet ingredients in, and it turned out smooth, light, rich, and super tasty! Check out my version of Tyler Florence's cake here: Jen's Red Velvet Alternative Cake (ssshh- with beets).
We don't eat cake all that often, so I guess I'm not going to worry about ingesting a little extra Red Dye #4... There's a bit of hooting and hollering about red food coloring made from crushed beetle. And some people might be allergic to such beetles. So don't eat the whole cake!
Meanwhile, my personal history with this Red Velvet Cake Recipe is thus: Do not underestimate to quantity of red food coloring it takes to make this cake red! I thought I had plenty on hand, since I had one bottle of it, but it turns out that 2 ounces of the stuff is two big bottles. Have it on hand, because the alternatives aren't pretty. (You can rename the cake, "Sort-of-Red Velvet Cake", or you can try to dissolve leftover red egg coloring tablets, but that's not a very good option...)
I researched many of the recipes for such a cake, taking the best qualities of all worlds, tweaking the different versions until I had what turned out to be my favorite. I also tweaked the buttercream frosting recipe, employing the use of the microwave to cut down on pan-washing... It turned out excellent!