• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease 3 8" cake pans. Line with parchment paper and grease parchment. Dust with flour and knock out any excess. Set aside.
• Whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside and let cool.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and shortening until smooth. Mix in the sugar, beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Over at your cooled cocoa mixture, stir in the buttermilk and the vanilla.
• Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture, mix in the flour mixture and cocoa mixture to your batter with the mixer on low. Mix until combined.
• In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar with the baking soda until the baking soda dissolves. Add to the cake batter and stir until just combined. (This helps the red to really pop).
• Divide the batter evenly among the prepared baking pans. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Cool for 20 minutes in pans before turning out onto a wire rack. Remove the parchment and cool completely.

For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. With your mixer on low, add the cinnamon and confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Taste test to see if you would like to add more cinnamon at this time. If the frosting becomes too thick, add milk, 1 tbs at a time to make easier to spread.

Assemble the Cake

• To assemble the cake, place one of the cake layers on your cake plate. Spread an even layer of 3/4 – 1 cup of frosting over and top with another layer. Spread frosting over that one too and top with the final cake layer. Crumb coat your cake and let set in the fridge for 20 minutes. Ice with all of the remaining frosting. Seriously, it’s cream cheese frosting – go to town with it!