I was watching a baking show (DC Cupcakes, I think) and they made a Red Velvet cupcake without using food coloring. It had something to do with a chemical reaction to vinegar. Of course, my kids chose that exact moment to start fighting so I missed the whole explanation of the recipe and then my one year old sat on the remote, which changed the channel, so I couldn't rewind it. Has anyone else ever seen or tried this vinegar instead of dye technique? Thanks for any and all help.

I came across this page yesterday when looking for red velvet recipes. It explains about the cocoa reacting with the buttermilk to make the red colour.
http://bestcupcakerecipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/red-velvet-cupcake-recipe.html

Interesting. I want to try this because I HATE using red coloring in the cake since there's enough coloring in frostings and fondant usually.

Where would I find that kind of cocoa?

there was also a recipe in Cake Central Magazine for red velvet cake using beets for the coloring, haven't tried it yet, but plan to. Has anyone tried this? and how does it taste?

Thank you so much Monster03! I haven't seen light cocoa powder before but I'll look into ordering it. Until then, I'll try the beet juice.