• Cream the butter in a stand mixer with paddle until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, almond and vanilla and mix well again.
• Add in the egg and milk and beat until light and fluffy again.
• Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the mixture to the mixer and beat on low until combined well, but do not over mix or your cookies will be tough.
• Divide dough into 2 batches and wrap each in plastic wrap flattened into a square. Refrigerate overnight.
• When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Flour your countertop and roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Use cutters to cut out shapes. You can push the scraps together and reroll to make more cookies.
• Bake the cookies 1 inch apart for 7-8 minutes until just barely getting at touch of brown on the edges. Remove cookie sheet from the oven and allow to cool fully, or cool for a few minutes and move to a cooling rack.

For the icing:

• Pour a decent amount of powdered sugar into a bowl. If you are going to make colored icing, pour into multiple bowls. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla to each bowl. Add just enough water to make the icing about thick glue consistency. Thick enough that it won't just run off the cookies but not so thick you can't squeeze it out of squeeze bottles. Add coloring as desired.
• Put icing into piping bags or bottles for decorating. Use on the cooled cookies as desired.