Red velvet cake is not supposed to taste like chocolate. After all, it only has a tablespoon or two in it. The only reason it has any cocoa powder at all is to keep the red from tasing bitter. I can't explain the vinegar because I'm not up on all the science involved in baking. I am one of the ones who straddles the fence on scratch vs. mix (because I use both), but in the case of RV cake scratch is the only way to go. Box mixes are chocolate cake with red coloring added. Scratch RV is not like that at all.
The recipe I use is Chef Stef's. It is really good, but I decrease the oil a little bit because I thought it was too moist of a cake. I don't taste bitter red OR chocolate. If you are expecting a chocolate taste, you'll probably be let down by the scratch RV. It has such a light flavor that I really don't know how to put into words. Here's what I use:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-7366-Chef-Stefs-southern-red-velvet-cake.html
Funny, I tried that recipe a while back and it was so awful I threw out the whole batch. I made cupcakes, and they raised too much and spilled out of the cupcake papers, but then they fell in the middle. I figured it was something I did wrong, but I won't try it again.
Generally, I think RV just doesn't taste like much of anything. I like strong flavors and cakes with body, so it's not a fav of mine.
I love it. I don't find it to be chocolate-y at all. It only has like a tablespoon of cocoa powder in the entire recipe. I only make it from scratch tho. and everyone loves it. It also has the vinegar or buttermilk. It should turn out very moist yet dense with almost a tart aftertaste, chased with some cream cheese frosting, my mouth is watering.....
Tastes nothing like chocolate (to me)...has a taste all it's own and it's either loved or hated. It's one of my best sellers. I had never had it until I started selling it! But always thought it was a fruity flavored cake because of the color. LOL...Boy was I wrong! Try the Confetti Cakes version. OMG...it is the best!
I LOVE red velvet. I use the "Southern Red Velvet Cake II" recipe from this site, originally cakeman raven's, with 2 Tablespoons instead of 2 teaspoons cocoa powder.
Red Velvet is in no way, shape, or form a chocolate cake, "light" chocolate cake, or chocolate flavored cake. Red Velvet is it's own flavor, created mostly from the buttermilk thats sweetened. I think sometimes people make it from scratch and don't like it because they subed milk+acid instead of real buttermilk. You MUST use real buttermilk. It makes the cake.
Can you use low fat buttermilk,that's the one I'm able to get in the stores. How would it affect the taste and texture.
To me it's just tastes like nothing but then again that's me. My daughter who's a diabetic is always asking me to make it just in case her sugar goes down lol, what a way to con me eh? Now I have to make 3 RV cakes this month. I guess since I'm such a choc-a-holic nothing tastes better 
Can you use low fat buttermilk,that's the one I'm able to get in the stores. How would it affect the taste and texture.
Lowfat is fine.. full fat is nearly impossible to find. I sometimes will mix in a pinch of sour cream to get some more fat into it.
As a kid I always said RV was my favorite cake.. and then one day I realized I didn't love the cake flavor but loved the cream cheese frosting many put on it
I think it's ookk. I don't put a pound of dye in it though, so mine is a bit of a brownish red..
IMO, nothing tastes bad w/ cream cheese icing
I'm from "Deep (deep) South Georgia" a true southern belle and I personally LOVE a real red velvet cake which must be made from scratch and have cream cheese icing with chopped "PE-CANS" !!!! I think its like sweet tea and fried green tomatoes and grits and lacey cake cornbread. Maybe just a regional thing or what you grew up having at grandma's house!!!! I absolutely love it and get lots of requests for it. The guitar cake which I just posted on my pics last weekend was red velvet by request and they couldn't get enough. Paula Deen has a recipe for "Red Velvet Bread Pudding" that is to die for. Ok so maybe I just eat anything that has sugar in it!!!
yes, I use low fat buttermilk all the time. As long as it is buttermilk and not the common milk+acid substitute, I think you'll be fine
For me, it depends on the recipe. The perfect Red Velvet is a sweet yet tangy buttermilk cake with a HINT of cocoa (it is NOT, nor is it meant to be, a chocolate cake). I've had very few that I have tasted that really bowled me over. Pink Cake Box makes a fantastic red velvet (when I was there I had a REALLY hard time not eating all of the scraps). I'm VERY happy with my own recipe, but it's taken me a few years and a lot of trial and error to get it right. The red coloring of red velvet is incidental... I do make it both with and without the added food coloring (some customers want the dyed red look, while others prefer the original reddish tint from the cocoa powder chemical reaction)... on request I even make pink, purple, blue or green velvet 
There originally was no added food coloring in a RV cake. Before the more alkaline Dutch processed cocoa powder came along, the redness of the cake actually came from the reaction between the cocoa (usually about 3 tbsp) and the acidity of the buttermilk and vinegar.
The same was once true for devils food cake, another chocolate cake that turned red because of the reaction between the old fashioned cocoa and the extra baking soda it contained. At the turn of the century, these two names, red velvet and devils food were often used interchangeably.
Then, with the advent of Dutch process cocoa, the cakes no longer turned red on their own, so food coloring was added to red velvet while devils food remained as it was. Today, some RV cakes contain anywhere from no cocoa at all up to the usual 3 tbsp or so.
This is true, but you can still buy regular cocoa powder that is NOT Dutch processed, so you can still get this effect (I rarely keep Dutched cocoa in stock, and only buy it when I need it for some milder applications, as the taste isn't as strong as natural cocoa)... but some people will STILL prefer the "fake" red anyway... like if it doesn't look like it jumped out of a crayon box, it can't be real! lol
I've never tried one without added coloring. I'd be interested to try it just to see how red it gets. I do see see how devils food cake comes out a bit redder than other chocolate cakes, even if you do use Dutch processed. Sounds like experiment time. 
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