In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and mix well. Then add flavoring and mix again.

Add dry ingredients and stir by hand with a large spoon.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350° for about 5-7, until lightly brown on the edges. Cool before frosting.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg whites and powdered sugar until smooth.

The frosting to outline the cookies needs to be a bit thicker than the rest of it. So remove about a half cup of the royal icing you prepared in step one and place it in a separate bowl. Add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition, until the consistency reaches that of a slightly more runny buttercream.

Add food coloring to both your outlining and flooding icings, if you desire. Transfer the the thin flooding icing to a plastic baggy and seal the top. Transfer the thicker icing to the decorating bag with the tip attached.

Outline each cookie with the thick icing. You can do just a simple outline around the outside of the cookie, or you can outline different sections to fill with different colors (or not fill at all).

When you're done with the outlining, you're ready to fill. Cut a very small corner off the plastic baggy holding the royal icing. Pour gently onto the cookies. The frosting will spread itself over the cookies, and you can fill in the empty spots if there are any.