• In a large bowl, beat together shortening, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract until smooth (about 1 – 2 minutes).
• In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and beat just until well combined and the dough starts to stick together (about 1 – 2 minutes). Do not overmix.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Sprinkle a silicone baking mat (or table top) lightly with flour then place about 1/3 of the 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 (start checking cookies after 8 minutes instead of 12 minutes).
• For these Easter bunny sugar cookies, you’ll want to use cookie cutters in shapes of hearts. The hearts shown here are about 3.5” for the large and 2” in size for the small.
• Place cut out cookies onto prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The cookies can be placed close together on the baking sheet for this step. Place sugar cookies in freezer 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 12-14 minutes for thick cut cookies, 8-10 minutes for thinner cookies or until tops of cookies look set (no longer wet but not yet brown) and the bottoms of cookies 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 for all cookies.
• Repeat baking steps with remaining cookies.
• Let cookies cool completely before frosting.

Icing:

• In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). If icing seems too thick, beat in 1 tablespoon of water.
• Separate icings into separate smaller bowls to color.
• 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 (the side you were putting the icing in) using clips or elastics.
• Cut small openings in the tips of each icing bags. For background colors, the tips can be cut larger. For icings you’ll be printing with or doing finer details 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. Do not microwave icing – even 5 seconds in the microwave can turn the icing into a melted mess.
• Start decorating with background colors on all cookies (like the yellow background then the grey of the bunny). Simply start by lining the outside of the cookie then continue filling in following the shape of the cookie.
• Work on decorating cookies in layers – first the background color then finer details like the face of the bunny.
• 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.