Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs, sour cream and extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix until well blended.

This makes a very soft tender dough. It should be chilled for a few hours before rolling. Remember that adding more flour and doing more mixing makes dough tougher.

Roll out on a floured counter and cut it using floured cutters (just dip them in flour between cutting each cookie). Save all the scraps till done, then knead them smooth (knead as little as possible), and recut.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.

This makes a lot of cookies.

Frosting for these cookies (and for decorating cakes):

2 pounds of powdered sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix till smooth. Tint with paste or gel food coloring. This sets quickly so add sprinkles as soon as the cookie is decorated.

The original cookie recipe is from a community cookbook put out by Faith Christian School of Sparta, IL (1984), p. 155.