Cream butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer.

Mix in egg, vanilla, and salt and beat until mixed well.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and then place dough in the refrigerator for an hour or so, or until the dough firms up. You can also put it in the freezer but I would only do that for 20-30 minutes otherwise it’s very difficult to roll out.

Sprinkle your work surface and rolling pin with powdered sugar.

Roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut with cookie cutters.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookie is cooked all the way through. The cookie should not brown, but the edges can be slightly browned (that’s a good indication it’s done).

Cool on a wire rack.

To make icing, In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder and water.

Mix for 7-10 minutes, until the ingredients are well blended and the icing has a matte finish. This is the base consistency.

I usually add about 1 tsp more of water for a good outline icing (I use a 10 second rule) and add more water until I reach a 4-second icing for flood icing. This means that when you drizzle icing over the bowl of royal icing then the icing will flow back in with the rest of the icing in 4 seconds (10 second icing is the same but it will sink back in with the rest of the icing in 10 seconds). If you need to thin it out more then add more water. If you need to thicken it add more powdered sugar.

To decorate spider web cookies, outline the cookies using either a #2 or #3 tip with white icing. Let the outline dry for about an hour.

Reserve some of the thicker icing to make the spiders at the end.

Then, thin out the icing (4 second icing) in white and black and transfer to squeeze bottles (like the bottles used for ketchup or mustard at a restaurant).

Then flood the cookies with the background color. Using a toothpick, drag the icing so that it fills the entire outline.

While the flood icing is still wet, use the squeeze bottles to make 3 circles of black. Then with a toothpick, start in the center of the cookie and drag the toothpick out to the edge of the outline to make a weblike pattern.

Let dry for a few hours or overnight. When the icing is dry on the cookie, using a #7 tip (or any other large circular tip), pipe a circle with the thicker icing (10-second icing) in green until it resembles the body of a spider.

Then using a #2 tip pipe the legs of the spider. Let the cookie sit until it is dry.