1. In a large bowl, beat together 1/4 cup softened butter until creamy. Once the butter is fluffed up, add in 3/4 cups white sugar. Beat that until combined, about 2 minutes.

2. Now add in 1/3 cups vegetable oil, 1 large room temp. egg, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 tsp. white vinegar. Beat that again, until everything is fully incorporated.

3. In a separate, small bowl, whisk together 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1/4 tsp. salt.

4. Now to the wet ingredients, add in about 1/2 of the dry ingredients. Beat until combined. Pour in 1/2 cup buttermilk, and once fully mixed, add in the remaining dry ingredients.

5. To give it that signature red color, add in 1 1/2 tsp. of red gel food coloring. Beat that until the color is fully incorporated.

6. Evenly pour the batter into two 6 inch cake pans, greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. While the cake is cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. In a medium sized bowl, with a hand mixer, whip together 5 0z. softened cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Now in a separate bowl, whip together 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture and fold to combine. Save about 1/2 cup of the frosting, and dye it red.

8. Frost the cake with the frosting and pipe on mini red hearts! (or decorate however you’d like!)