Marbled Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Have been baking two days in a row for SooHui's Project Home Roadshow. Went to few places to look for dog shape cookie cutter, but end up only able to get dog bone shape :(

Used thekitchn's recipe of "Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies" but omitted the cream cheese to save cost.

3 cups butter, softened at room temperature for an hour
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
6 ounces cream cheese (3/4 of a standard cream cheese package)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
9 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and add the sugar. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until golden. Add the cream cheese and again beat until well incorporated. Add the flavorings and lemon zest.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl then add, bit by bit, to the butter/sugar mixture.You will have chosen a large bowl for this particular recipe, I hope - mine was overflowing by this point and I ended up doing the final mix in a large plastic bag.

Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour - preferably overnight.

Heat the oven to 350° F. Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll out 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out cookies.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes, depending on thickness. The small, thinner ones started browning after about 8 minutes, and I didn't want these brown at all. The larger ones had a slight golden bottom after 11 minutes, which was perfect for my purposes.

Let cool before icing or decorating, and store in a tightly covered container.

(Mine was too sticky, so I had to add in additional few cups of flour)

Was told that the cookies lack of taste... maybe because I cut down the sugar by one cup. I always cut down the sugar by 1/3 in all recipes.

Hmm... lots more to improve... ganbate eve.