Easter Sugar Cookies

My aunt came to town from Texas this past weekend and she brought the kids some spring/Easter cookie cutters, frosting and sprinkles to decorate cookies as well as several egg dying kits.  We got the eggs dyed but didn't have time to bake the cookies while she was back so she asked if I would bake the cookies with the kids and of course I obliged!  I was excited to find a new sugar cookie recipe so once again I got out my trusty old Taste of Home Cookies book and found a recipe called Easter Sugar Cookies.  These melt in your mouth cookies were so delicious my children said they were addicting.  The recipe calls for butter, sugar, an egg yolk, cream cheese and both vanilla and almond extracts just to name most of the ingredients.  They are so good it's hard not to eat the dough...which of course we ate some.  I used a paste food coloring to color the frosting blue, yellow and purple.  Then we had a spray can of white frosting that had interchangeable tips.  Yes a spray can of frosting...I'd never seen such a thing but the kids thought it was awesome!

Here is a picture of the cookies my children decorated.  They are shaped as an Easter egg, flower and butterfly.

There are a few cookies that look as though someone sprinkled an entire container of sprinkles on them and those were the ones made by my three year old.  He feels the more sprinkles the better.  However, I'm pretty sure there were even more sprinkles on the floor than the cookies!  And lets not forget to mention all the flour from rolling them out.  I love sugar cookies but clean up is a bit tricky and that is why I only make them a few times a year.  Also since I made the frosting such bright colors the blue stained my sons face...Oops!  Below you will find the delicious recipe I used.  I thought they were so good I ate a few unfrosted ones.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Tinted frosting or colored sugar

Directions

• In a bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat in egg yolk and extracts. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until easy to handle.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Decorate as desired. Yield: 4 dozen.