This sugar cookie recipe is my go to recipe, they're a nice combination of crispy and soft. They're amazing for cookie cutters because this dough will not spread at all during baking even with the smallest detailed cutters. 

Ingredients:
6 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla 
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Using an electric mixer or stand mixer cream the butter and sugar on low for 1 minute, do not over mix. 

Add eggs to the butter mix on low until just combined, add the vanilla and mix again just until combined. TIP: over mixing is not your friend, mix only until everything is combined, 30 seconds at most. 

IMPORTANT TIP: when measuring out the flour make sure you do not pack it in. Run the back end of a knife along the top of the measuring cup to make sure it's completely flush otherwise you'll have too much flour, which will ruin the consistency of your dough. 

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the butter mixture and mix for an additional 45 seconds. he mixture should not be sticky, it should be slightly crumbly but not too dry. 

The dough needs to be chilled before working with it, you can either cover the bowl with wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. OR, and the option I always use, divide the dough into two pieces and roll each one out to about 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes. This method allows the dough to chill faster and the dough is much easier to roll out while it's room temperature. 

Remove from the fridge and cut out using any cookie cutter you like. Below, Ive used an elephant and onesie for a Baptism. You can see the amount of small detail in the elephant comes out perfectly with zero spreading of the dough. 

Place in the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, the cookies shouldn't brown. You can see that none of the sides have browned and all sides are smooth. Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing. 

You can eat these cookies just like this, with some frosting or with royal icing decorations. Follow my royal icing recipe (found here) to get that perfect hard coating that allows you to decorate cookies like a pro.