Sugar Cookies

I made sugar cookies by myself for the first time this last week!



My mom always made them growing up and I had no idea how much of a learning curve there would be. After trying a few different techniques I finally figured out how to make them come out well. A few people have been asking for the recipe so here it is:

Cut Out Cookies
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt.

1. Cream softened butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour, soda, cream of tarter and salt together in a bowl then add to cream mix.
2. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
3. Roll dough on floured surface. Cut cookies with cookie cutters.
4. Bake 400 degrees 6-8 minutes (It was always exactly 8 minutes for me). Remove and place on cooling rack.

Here's a few tips I learned:
-Don't be afraid to use a lot of flour for the floured surface. I even kept putting flour on top of the dough to prevent the rolling pin from sticking. The cookies still turned out well with the extra flour used.
-I have an ultra thin spatula to pick up the cut out dough shapes which helped a lot.
-After you're done with the first round of cutting out cookies, brush the flour off the best you can, roll the dough together and roll it out again same a before--lots of flour on the bottom and add flour as needed on the top.
-As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven take them off the pan--they won't squish together like other cookies will and if you let it cool a bit before taking them off they start sticking to the sheet.

Frosting:
1 stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup milk (I think I used just a little less)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Remember to use coloring dye and festive sprinkles for decorating!