In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until smooth (about 1 - 2 minutes).

Beat in eggs and vanilla until light & fluffy (about 2 minutes).

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and beat just until well combined and the dough starts to stick together (about 1 – 2 minutes).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sprinkle table or silicone baking sheet lightly with flour then place some dough onto the prepared surface to roll out. Sprinkle top of dough with flour to prevent dough from sticking to rolling pin.

For soft and thick cookies, it’s recommended to use a rolling pin with thickness rings and use the 3/8” thickness ring. If you aren’t cutting these cookies out thick, you’ll want to reduce your baking time to reflect that. This is the rolling pin I use.

For these cat sugar cookies, you’ll want to use cookie cutters in shapes of circles, hearts and squares. The circles and squares shown here are about 3.5” in size.

Place cut out cookies onto prepared baking sheet (they can be placed close together on the baking sheet for this step) and freeze for 20 minutes before baking.*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a second baking sheet with parchment paper. Place some cookies onto the baking sheet (about 2 inches apart) and bake for 15-17 minutes (for thick cut cookies) or until edges are slightly brown. The middle of cookies will still be slightly soft to the touch but will continue baking once removed from the oven. Only bake one tray of cookies at a time to ensure even baking time.

Repeat baking steps with remaining cookies.

Let cookies cool completely before frosting.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).

Separate icings into separate smaller bowls to color icings.

Use food coloring to color icings in desired colors. Stir completely to make sure all color is worked into the icing.

Place icings into tipless piping bags and close the ends using clips or elastics.

Cut small openings into the tips of each icing bags. For background colors, the tips can be cut larger. For icings you’ll be printing with, keep the tip cut small.

If icings are not squeezing out of the bags smoothly, roll piping bags between hands to warm icing a bit making it easier to squeeze out.

Start with background colors on all cookies (like the white for the squares you’ll be printing on). If you want to smooth this icing a bit before printing on it, place those cookies into the fridge for about 15 minutes then pat icing down lightly with either a spatula or using a piece of parchment paper over the top and smoothly down icing with your hand. Don’t smooth icing down once the finer details are added (like print) or the finer details will smudge.

Work on decorating cookies in layers – first the background color then ears, eyes, print, etc.

Cookies can be stored at room temperature (in a sealed food safe container) at room temperature for up to 3 days or in fridge for up to a week. Store cookies in a single layer to not squish icing details.