Teenage Cake Boss: Christmas Cutout Cookies

Every holiday season, this is what happens in my house. Traditional sugar cookies are one of the many things we end up baking, and now that my sister and I are old enough, we pretty much take up the process.

Now a few years ago, we finally switched our recipe. We got it from my wonderful Aunt Anne after my mom and I had been chowing down her cookies at almost every family get together. She says it's from The Joy of Cooking. And really... They're amazing.

Now, I ended up doubling the recipe but I won't frigthen anyone now by asking for a pound of butter for cookies.

Hungry yet? Good.

What you'll need:

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

-Cream together egg, butter, and sugar.
-Blend in the vanilla.
-Mix in the sifted flour and salt.
-Chill the dough for 2 hours.
-Roll onto a floured surface, and cut into shapes

Yay for messes!

-Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until slightly browned. Or in our case, until they're just slightly underdone. I think they're delicious that way.

Now of course, on to my favorite part... Frosting! Typically we use two different kinds of frosting... The one that we typically use for coloring is just a mixture of milk, vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency. It makes this very pretty icing that dries to the cookies.

The second frosting we use, we always keep white. It's the recipe my Grandma Pat has been using for a very long time:

Mix together:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup cream or milk.

Once the frosting is made, feel free to decorate as you please! We've always used an assortment of sprinkles and other goodies, but it's all up to you!