Cream together butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer or with a hand mixer.
Add in egg and almond extract and beat together well.
Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda and add to butter mixture.
Mix until combined and the dough comes together.
Dough does not need to be chilled, but can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator (up to 3 days) or freezer (up to 3 months) until ready to bake.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment, waxed paper, or plastic wrap to ¼"-½" thick.
Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies are just barely showing a bit of browning.
Remove from oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes before removing cookies from baking sheet and transferring to a cooling rack.
Frosting/Decorating
Remove the lid and foil wrapper from the tub of frosting.
Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave and stir completely. Heat for additional 15 second spurts until frosting is pourable. Do not overheat as frosting will separate and be unusable. Check for optimal consistency by dipping a spoon into the frosting, lifting it, and checking to see that the drizzle smooths back out into a smooth surface of frosting within a few seconds.
Pour a 1" thick layer of the warmed frosting into a shallow bowl. Hold the sides of the cookie and dip it upside down into the frosting. Be sure to coat the entire top of the cookie. Quickly lift the cookie back up, allowing the excess frosting to drip off, and then place the cookie face up onto a sheet of parchment paper.
Top with sprinkles immediately and allow to set.
The frosting will set up and will be fairly dry after about 1 hour. Cookies can be gently stacked at that time.
Notes
When cutting out shapes, handle dough as little as possible so it doesn't become tough or dry. You can scoop up excess dough after cutting out and re-roll it, but dough gets tough after more than two time being rolled out. I'd recommend dividing the initial ball of dough into two pieces and roll them out separately. If dough seems too soft, refrigerate for 20-30 minutes before rolling out. You can also place the sheet pan with cut outs into the refrigerator for 15 minutes or more before baking to help cookies retain their shapes during baking.Dough can be colored with gel food coloring just before adding the flour into the butter/sugar mixture.*Nutritional calculations do not include frosting or decorations.