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1
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
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2
If you don't have a sifter, use a whisk to mix dry ingredients together.
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3
Put butter and sugar in a stand mixer bowl. Beat with paddle attachment on low speed to blend, then increase speed to medium and beat until soft and light. Add egg, milk, and then flour mixture, beating after each addition until blended, and scraping inside of bowl as needed.
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4
Lay 2 sheets of plastic wrap on a work surface. Scrape half of dough from bowl onto each wrap and shape into a disk about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap dough in plastic, then chill until it's firm enough to roll and hold its shape, 30-60 minutes.
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5
Line 2-4 sheet pans with parchment paper.
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6
If you don't have parchment paper, you can bake cookies on ungreased sheet pans.
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7
Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll 1 dough disk to 1/4 inch thick, lifting and re-flouring board and rolling pin as needed to prevent sticking. Cut out cookies using whatever shapes you like. Transfer cookies to prepared sheet pans, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Dust cookie cutters in flour if dough starts to stick. Gather scraps, re-roll, and cut.
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8
For crisper cookies, roll dough 1/8-inch thick and bake a few minutes less.
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9
To keep the true shapes of cookies, refrigerate cookies on sheet pans for 10-15 minutes while oven is preheating. Meanwhile, continue with second disk of dough. If dough starts to get too soft to cut, chill it again for a few minutes.
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10
Dough keeps up to 3 days in the refrigerator (wrapped airtight) if you want to make some cookies one day and some another.
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11
Preheat oven to 350u00b0F.
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12
Bake 2 pans of cookies at a time in upper third and lower third of oven for 5 minutes, then switch pan positions. Continue to bake until cookies are light golden-brown around the edges, 5-8 minutes.
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13
Check to see that cookies are done. Remove from oven or add time as needed.
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14
Use a wide spatula to transfer cookies to cooling racks and let cool, about 15 minutes.
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15
Make royal icing: Sift powdered sugar into a stand mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment. Add meringue powder. With mixer on low speed, add water, 1 Tbsp. at a time until combined, scraping bowl as needed. Increase speed to high and beat until icing is shiny, thickened, and smooth and holds a soft peak that flops over when whisk is lifted, 3-5 minutes. (If icing is too thick, add an additional Tbsp. water.) If it falls off the whisk, add an additional 1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar. This is your outline icing.
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16
Gel food coloring works better and produces truer colors than liquid food coloring because the color is more concentrated. If the icing in the bowls begin to harden before you use it, add 1 tsp. lemon juice or water and stir with a flexible spatula to loosen it up.
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17
Put one-quarter of icing in a small bowl and one-quarter in another. Leave 1 bowl white and stir in gel color into the other.
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18
Make filling icing: add water, 1 tsp. at a time, to remaining icing in stand mixer bowl, mixing on low speed; when whisk is lifted, icing should droop and then slowly fall off. Divide icing between 2 small bowls. Leave 1 bowl white and stir in gel color into the other.
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19
Transfer each icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round decorating tip. Use your smallest tips (ideally, #3) for outline icing and slightly larger (ideally, #5) for filling icing.
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20
To fill a piping bag, snip about 1 inch off the small end. Insert a decorating tip and gently squeeze it down until its opening comes out the end of the bag. Fold back the top of the bag, then set the bag upright in a sturdy glass or mug. Fill with icing about half full. Unfold the top of the bag, twist it closed, and squeeze until icing comes out the tip.
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21
Squeeze outline icing over a few cookies at a time. To line with sprinkles, sparkling/sanding sugar, or cake sparkles, pour some onto a flat plate and invert outlined cookies onto decor; sprinkles will stick to icing. Then use outline icing to add details to cookies such as faces. Finally, add sugar pearls if you like for additional detailing.
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22
Use the sharp end of a toothpick to blend or eliminate icing peaks.
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23
To fill in a cookie completely with color, outline the cookie in icing first, then squeeze in filling icing, using the same color or a different one. Carefully spread filling icing with a toothpick if needed. Top with sprinkles if you like, or invert cookies onto plates of sprinkles, sparkling/sanding sugar, or cake sparkles to cover completely.
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24
Outlining the cookie first will keep the icing from spilling over.
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25
To stripe a cookie, choose one color and outline and fill stripes. Choose another color and outline and fill in the blanks.
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26
Icing takes a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour to completely set, but cookies can be eaten at any time. If transporting cookies, let icing set completely, 1 hour.
