Cream sugar and butter together. Once the sugar and butter are completely combined, add the remaining wet cookie ingredients.

Sift all of the dry cookie ingredients together in a separate bowl. I suggest whisking the dry ingredients a few times just to be sure it is well combined.

Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet. Once all of the ingredients are combined it should form a large ball of dough.

Separate the dough into two balls. Wrap the dough balls in plastic wrap and let chill for 30 minutes to an hour.

Once dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating. Roll out your dough and cut it into your desired shapes.

Place your cutouts onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (you may also use a silicone mat instead of parchment paper)

Bake your cookies for 7 to 9 minutes or until they just barely start to brown a the base of the cookie. Be extra careful not to overtake them or they may come out dry

Once you have baked your cookies, you may start to prepare your royal icing. Start by combining all of your ingredients into your mixing bowl.

Give the icing a quick stir to combine just to save you the mess when you have to mix it

Use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or a hand mixer) to whip your icing until you get stiff peaks. This only takes a few minutes however it may take more with a hand mixer.

Depending on how you want to decorate your cookies, you may need to thin your icing. Be extra careful not to over thin or the icing will flow off of the cookie.

If you want to color your icing you may do so but be sure to use a gel paste color or an icing color so as to not alter the consistency of your icing.

Let icing dry for 8 to 12 hours before handling the cookie.