Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

• Heat oven to 375°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

• In a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, or use the bowl of stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, egg, and almond extract. Beat together on medium speed until it's pale in color and fluffy. About 2-3 minutes. 

  ^{*Whipping air into the mixture is so important, so make sure you are beating it for at least 2 minutes. I like to use a stand mixer for this.}
  12 tablespoons salted butter, 1 bar (8 oz) full-fat cream cheese, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon almond extract
• In a separate small bowl add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a whisk to break up the clumps.
  2¼ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Add half of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture and blend on low speed.

  Add the other half and blend on low speed just until combined. The dough will be really soft, and sticky, but should form a ball of dough in the bowl.

  ^{* Don't add more flour here if the dough seems sticky. When you roll out the dough in the next step you will add some additional flour.}
• Spray countertop with cooking spray and then sprinkle flour over it. This helps with clean-up and prevents the dough from sticking to the counter. Roll out dough and use whatever cookie cutter shape you want. 

  ^{*Take care to not roll the dough too thin. You want it thicker. Use additional flour as needed to make the dough roll out and the cookies come off the counter easily. I use about 1/3 cup additional flour when I am rolling and cutting the cookie dough.} 
• Place 12 cookies per cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

  ^{*The cookies should still be very pale and should have no golden brown color on them. The middle of the cookies should look dry, not wet, and be puffy.} 
• Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the warm cookie sheet for about 20 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost and decorate with sprinkles once completely cooled. 

Whipped Vanilla Frosting

• Combine the butter, powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, and almond extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together until it's combined.

  ^{*Add more milk if the mixture is too thick and/or add more powdered sugar if the frosting is too thin.} 

  ^{*If wanting to add color to the frosting, use 1-3 drops to start with and add more if needed. Add the food coloring in with the other ingredients.}
  5 tablespoons salted butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon almond extract, sprinkles and gel food coloring