Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in the flour mixture. Turn out dough, and divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Let one disk of dough come to room temperature just until soft enough to roll. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a little less than 1/4-inch thick. (I like to put my rolled out dough back into the refrigerator so they are easier to cut.) Cut out cookies using desired cutters. Place the cut cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Roll the dough back out and repeat. Chill cookies in freezer until very firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Decorate with Royal Icing.

Royal Icing

1 box confectioners’ sugar (1 pound)
5 tablespoons meringue powder

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugar and meringue powder. Mixing on low speed, add a scant 1/2 cup water. For a thinner consistency, usually used for flooding, add more water. A thicker consistency is generally used for outlining and adding details. Mix until icing holds a ribbonlike trail on the surface of the mixture for 5 seconds when you raise the paddle.

Sugar Cookie Tips

• Cold dough will help keep the shape of cut cookies.
• Consider using powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out your cookies to keep it from sticking.
• Avoid over-mixing the dough once you have added the dry ingredients. Overmixing will make the cookies tough.
• Dip cookie cutters in flour to prevent sticking.
• Rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking to bake cookies evenly.
• Iced Sugar Cookies can be stored up to four weeks when using meringue powder verses egg whites.

Edible Photo Application

Carefully cut out your edible photos leaving a small edge around the print.

Once you have iced your cookies, let the royal icing dry. It will form a nice shell on top. Lay the edible photo in place on the cookie. Wet the paintbrush with just a touch of water. Carefully paint along the edges of the edible photos. Be careful not to let the water touch the ink so that the ink doesn’t bleed.

Let the cookies dry completely.