Use an electric mixer with a whisk attachment to cream the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl at high speed for 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through mixing.
¾ cup butter, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ¾ cup powdered sugar
Add the eggs, almond, and vanilla extracts to the butter. Mix on high speed until fluffy and well combined, about 2 minutes. Again, scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through mixing.
2 large eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift the flour into the bowl. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Switch to the paddle attachment and mix on low-speed until a soft dough forms, about 1 to 2 minutes.
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a disc about 1 inch (2 ½ cm) thick. Wrap the cookie dough discs in parchment paper. Chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Bake The Cookies
Remove a disc from the refrigerator. Lightly flour a piece of waxed paper on a work surface. Place the dough on the paper and sprinkle it lightly with flour. Place a second piece of waxed paper on top. Starting in the middle of the dough, gently use a rolling pin to roll it out to a thickness of ¼ inch (6 mm).
Cut out shapes with any cookie cutters you like. Repeat the process, re-rolling the scraps when needed until all the dough is gone. Place the cutouts in the freezer for 30 minutes.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Remove the cutouts from the freezer. Arrange them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving room between each cookie. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are pale gold on the edges.
Remove the cookies from the oven onto wire cooling racks. After 10 minutes, transfer the cookies from the sheets directly to the racks to cool completely before decorating.
Marble The Cookies
Make a half batch of our royal icing recipe. Divide the icing into three bowls. Leave one bowl of icing white, and color the other two bowls with your favorite food coloring.
½ batch Royal Icing
Pour the white icing on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Drizzle the other two colors over the white.
Dip the cookies top-down gently in the icing. To keep the marbled effect, don't move the cookies around. Pick up the cookie, let any extra icing drizzle back onto the plate, and quickly flip the cookie over onto a wire cooling rack. Use a toothpick to gently pop any bubbles and push icing onto any exposed edges.
Let the cookies set for at least one hour. Let the icing set overnight if you want to place them in a box or container.
Notes
The longer you leave the cookies in the freezer, the better they will hold their shape in the oven.We used three different-sized cookie cutters for this recipe. All of the cutouts took the same amount of time to bake.If your royal icing is too thick, add water half a teaspoon at a time until it has a nice thick, syrupy flow like honey.We used Wilton Red (No-Taste) gel food color mixture and Wilton Pink gel coloring for these cookies.