Sugar Cookie Dough

1. Preheat your oven to 350 °F.
2. Cream butter, vanilla extract, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
3. Stop the mixer and add salt, baking powder, as well as your eggs and flour. Mix for about 1 minute on medium speed before adding chocolate chips to bowl and mixing another minute. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together. 
4. Roll the dough into a ball on a clean, flat, floured surface. I like dividing half at a time and rolling it out to about ¼ inch before pressing the cookie cutters into the dough. 
5. Use a spatula to lift and transfer dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 10-14 minutes (longer time for larger cookies, shorter for small ones). Transfer them to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle. 

Optional Buttercream Frosting

1. With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, lemon juice (if using), and salt. Beat for about 3  minutes.
2. Taste test and then add another splash of lemon juice if too sweet.
3. Once happy with flavor, drag the spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear. Spend 3-4 minutes doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
4. If using, add food gel color(s) to bowl(s) of buttercream.

Cookie Assembly

1. Load buttercream into piping bags, fitted with tips of your choice. 
2. Create rings or rows of frosting across or around your cookies. Alternatively, use buttercream between cookies to create cookie sandwiches.  
3. Freeze any excess buttercream for up to three months in an airtight container.