Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray. For a higher ratio of cake to frosting, use two 9x2 inch pans. If you use three 8-inch or go with two 9-inch, you will probably need to tack on about 4 minutes to the cook time due to the batter being deeper.
Using high speed of electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, vanilla extract and butter extract, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
Make a paste of red food coloring and cocoa powder, then stir that in. Or, do what I do and just stir the red food coloring and cocoa in, then beat. When the batter turns red, stir in the salt and beat so that it's very well mixed.
Starting and ending with flour, add the flour and buttermilk alternately to batter, stirring so that flour gets absorbed.
Place the baking soda in a little cup. Add the vinegar to the baking soda, then stir the fizzy vinegar mixture into the cake batter to lighten it.
Now, empty the cake batter into the pans, dividing evenly. I weighed my last batch and got about 318 grams per pan (for 3 layers).
Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Let cakes cool in pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Flip out of pans and cool completely.
If your cake domes, you can trim off the domes and crumble them for garnish.