homemade animal crackers

I wanted to try out a recipe to make Animal Crackers but every recipe I found online included the same ingredient- ground oatmeal. That sounded, well, less-than-appetizing to me so I decided to test out a recipe of my own. And viola! I came up with a very yummy animal cracker recipe.

Christina's Animal Crackers
In a bowl, mix until fluffy:
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. butter or margarine (softened)
Add into mixture:
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Fold in:
2 C. flour
mix until well blended, should form a ball when finished mixing. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350. The baking time should reflect the size of the animal crackers. for example, I used small doggy bone shapes that only needed 8-10 minutes baking time. watch for the cookies, they should become golden brown when done.

NOW...if you are like me, you like icing on your animal crackers! However, I ate many of them before they were frosted and they still tasted wonderful!

Frosting Recipe
2 C. powdered sugar
1/4 C. milk
1 tbsp vanilla
food coloring (optional)
**I like to add a few tbsp's of butter or margarine (softened but not melted, the tub kind works best) to make the icing flavor more buttery, it thickens it up a bit too!

-christina