Birthday Sugar Cookies

Some of our good friends had a birthday party for their one year old last weekend, so I brought along these sweet frosted treats to help celebrate! These roll-and-cut sugar cookies are easy to make and fun to decorate. They taste sweet and sugary, and just a little buttery, with just the right crunch-to-chewiness consistency.

Vegan Frosted Sugar Cookies
Recipe adapted from Vegan Cookies InvadeYour Cookie Jar, with (somewhat) healthier adaptions and alterations that I have successfully made in parentheses- see the book for more options for these cookies! (And tons of other great vegan cookie recipes!)
*Recipe makes a lot of cookies, so feel free to halve if you don't want lots of cookies!
Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour (*Note: I have made these before with whole-wheat flour instead - the result is surprisingly still good- this makes for an admittedly much "healthier" tasting cookie, with a grainer, thicker consistency, but not overwhelmingly so. Feel free to sub in some whole wheat flour if you are looking for a somewhat healthier option. The cookies will not be as white, but if you are frosting them anyway, people may not notice!)
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine + 1 Tbsp (I have subbed this for 1/4 cup margarine and 1/4 cup mashed banana- again, surprisingly, it works just fine)
• 3 Tbsp vegetable shortening (In a pinch, I have used just 1 Tbsp shortening and the remainder margarine)
• 1 cup sugar (I have subbed 1/2 sugar and 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup vanilla almond or soy milk

Sugar glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp vanilla almond or soy milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla or other extract

Steps:

1. Mix together flour, salt, cornstarch, baking power in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter/shortening and sugar together with a mixer for about 3-4 min. Next beat in the extracts and milk, followed by 1/2 of flour mix. Use a fork to mix in the rest of the flour mix, until you have a large doughy ball. 
3. Divide the dough in half and wrap in saran wrap, patting down into large flat circles. Place in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, to chill. 
4. When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350F. Flour a large space and roll out portions of the dough with a lightly floured rolling pin. Cut into shapes and place on parchment-paper lined cookie sheets. 
5. Bake for about 8-10 min, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.
6. Repeat rolling & cutting with remaining dough.
7. Once the cookies are cooled, decorate with frosting. You can separate it into 2-3 bowls and color each, and thin or thicken as needed by adding more milk or powdered sugar respectively. 
8. Allow the icing to set for at least 30 minutes before transporting anywhere!

We had a happy one-year old! (And parents, and friends!)