Sugar Cookie Dough

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  
2. Cream butter, vanilla extract, spice (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, your choice!) 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 2 minutes on medium speed. 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. 

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. Divide buttercream, placing about 10% of it in a small bowl and use food gel to dye it green for the pumpkin's stem. Take remaining frosting and dye it into however many colors you'd like for your pumpkin spice sugar cookies. I wanted a mix of orange and white pumpkins so dyed half of my leftover buttercream orange.

Cookie Assembly

1. Load buttercream into piping bags, fitted with a small open round or open star tip. I used tip 32 and for variety switched to 12 halfway through decorating with my orange and white frostings. 
2. Place green buttercream into a small piping bag fitted with a small open tip to create the stem. I used tip 8.
3. Create semi-circular lines from the top of the pumpkin, following along the curve of its shape and connecting the top to the bottom. Continue filling in frosting until cookie is covered.
4. Add a small pumpkin stem and/or vines with green buttercream.
5. Repeat steps for every cookie, switching between piping tips and orange and white buttercream for different colors and texture.