Step 1

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the salt, ground cinnamon, and cloves; mix to combine. Now, add in the egg yolk, orange zest, and vanilla extract and mix until the egg is completely incorporated. Add the flour and mix just until the flour is incorporated; don’t mix anymore than you need to.

Step 2

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and pat down so that you get a 1 inch disc. Refrigerate the dough until it’s thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour.

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Take your dough out of the fridge and let the dough sit on the counter for about 15 minutes to slightly thaw. If you try to roll the dough out right away, you’ll end up with a lot of cracks in the dough.

Step 4

Dust your counter space with flour and place the dough on this surface. Roll the dough out so that it measures 1/4 inch thin. Always roll the dough in one direction, rotating the dough every once in awhile; don’t roll back and forth.

Step 5

Take your preferred cookie cutters and cut out the shapes you like. The cookies won’t really spread so you can place them fairly close to each other on the baking sheet. Place the sheet with the cut out shapes in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Step 6

Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes. They should be golden along the edges. Let the cookies continue to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes once they are out of the oven. If you try to remove them sooner, they will be too soft.

Step 7

Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, create the royal icing by whisking the egg whites with the cream of tartar or lemon juice just until the egg whites are frothy and have lost some of that yellowish appearance. Then add the powdered sugar in, one cup at a time, whisking after each addition. Once the icing is white and thick, stop mixing.

Step 8

Remove about 1/3 cup of the icing and pour it into a separate bowl. Add the drop of blue food coloring and whisk to combine. Paint the white icing onto the snowmen, and paint the blue icing onto other shapes. Wait until this base coat of icing has completely dried (2 -3 hours) before decorating the cookies with further embellishments (such as the snowman’s scarf, polka dots, or iced borders).