1. Add the flour, confectioners‘ sugar, and salt to a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the cold butter in small pieces and cut into even smaller pieces with a pastry blender*. Whisk the egg and add together with the vanilla extract to the bowl – mix with a fork first, then use your hands to create a nice and smooth dough. Try to work quickly so the butter is not melting. Wrap into plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and set aside. Divide the dough in half (keep one half in the fridge) and roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface. Use a Llama and cactus cookie cutter* to cut out as many cookies as possible. Collect leftover dough and roll out again. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes – they should not get much of a color. Take out of the oven and let cool down on the baking sheet for some time, then transfer to a wire rack to cool down completely. Bake more cookies with the remaining dough sitting in the fridge.

3. For the royal icing add the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder to a large bowl and mix to combine. Gradually add water and the flavoring (optional) and mix with a handheld mixer or your kitchen machine. At first, the mix will probably have a texture like wet sand or streusel but the more water you add the more it will look like icing. Be careful not to add too much water or the icing will get runny – you want a thick and only slightly runny texture. Mix for 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined. If the icing forms a peak when you pull out the hand mixer and it slowly curves down, then the consistency is right for the borders. For flooding consistency, you have to add a bit more water so the icing is a bit runnier.

4. Color the royal icing with different food colors – leave some white for the Llamas – and fill it into piping bags. Use the thicker icing to pipe borders along the edges of the cookies and flood the surface inside the borders with the slightly runnier icing. Use a toothpick if necessary to push the icing into all corners. Let the cookies dry overnight and place the rest of the icing in an airtight container and place it in the fridge. Decorate the cookies further with Christmas lights the next day and let them dry again overnight. After that, you can store them in a tin box (with paper in between) without destroying the decorations.