Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream butter, sugar, egg, and extract until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder and mix well. Dough should be soft and moldable but not sticky. 

There is no need to chill this dough.  Roll out in one big or several smaller batches, to about ¼ inch thick. Cutout cookies in whatever shapes you desire, and bake for 6-8 minutes. I generally do six minutes for standard sized cookies. For the larger star shapes that made up the tree base, I ended up cooking those between eight and nine minutes to ensure that they weren’t too soft and held up well when I stacked them.

Pipe with frosting of choice between the layers and a sprinkling of powdered sugar “snow.” Store coveted at room temperature for up to three days. Enjoy!