Almond Snowflakes

Almond Sugar cookies cut to look like snowflakes. 

Cookies:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl .  In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add in egg and extracts.  Beat well.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in thirds until it is a soft dough.  It may be sticky.  Divide dough in half and flatted each bit.  Wrap the two discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate  for 2-3 hours.

Oven at 350 degrees.  Roll out dough, if it is too hard and cracks let it soften for a few minutes.   Cut out your snowflakes with cutters or by hand.

Bake on a cookie sheet, it does not need to be greased.  They should be done in around ten minutes, depending on how thick and wide they are.  When they are done, let them cool completely before icing.

Icing:
1 tbsp meringue powder
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp warm water

Mix in a stand mixer on medium speed for about ten minutes.  I colored mine very slightly so it looked a brighter white, I used a mix of violet and aqua, in paste colors.  About the tip of a toothpick of each. Very little...

You can then pipe the icing onto your cookies in any way you'd like!  Also, use any other decorations. I brushed luster dust onto mine when they were done so they were shiny!