[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP: Wazzup with "Red Velvet Cake"

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Hullo, the list!

I just heard my first mention of Red Velvet Cake on the radio five 
minutes ago, and I went looking for a recipe, only to find it just a 
little frightening.

It appears to be a more-or-less innocuous, lightly-cocoa-flavored 
cream cake (in the sense that you cream together the fat and sugar to 
a very light, foamy consistency before adding the other ingredients, 
which seem to be fairly common, except perhaps for a dash of vinegar, 
often seen in Southern pie crust recipes). So far, so good.

That is, until you get to the _TWO_OUNCES_ of red food coloring added 
to the batter. That's 1/4 cup.

It seems that there are heretical recipes that call for a mere one 
ounce, but those are inferior because the crumb of the cake is a deep 
pink, and not, strictly speaking, red. It is rumored that you get 
points taken off if the powdered micro-grains of cocoa are visible in 
your finished cake.

Is anyone else reminded of the Red Raspberry Zinger cereal-ad debacle 
in Stephen King's novel "Cujo"?

Okay, guys, let's hear the pitch. Is this really something people eat?

Adamantius