Cream butter, sugar till creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beat well each time. With last egg add vanilla.

Combine in a bowl, the flour, salt, baking powder and whisk to get any lumps out.

Add dry ingredients slowly to butter and sugar mixture. Blend well.

Chill one hour or longer (I usually do one hour. You can freeze the dough as well to use at a later time)

Roll out onto floured board, the thicker the dough the softer the cookie.

Cut out as desired and bake on slightly greased pan 8-10 min at 375 degrees. Decorate as desired.

Combine sugar, milk and vanilla and blend well. Stir in enough additional milk, 1 tsp at a time till icing is smooth and the consistency you would like.

Add drops of food coloring to tint, if desired.

If you are using it as white icing as I do on the cookies, use clear vanilla extract as it will keep your frosting white.

You may have to play with the amount of milk to get it to the right consistency for icing cookies.