• In a medium bowl, beat butter, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla. Next, add 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until well blended. If the dough is still really sticky you may add in another ¼ to ½ cup of flour. 
• Divide the cookie dough into 2 equal size portions. Wrap each in plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until firm.
• When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature or until soft enough to roll easily. 
• On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to ¼ inch thick. Using a 2 ½ inch, lightly floured cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible. Remaining dough pieces can be gathered together and rolled back out to cut additional cookies.Place the cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the edges are just golden. These cookies can cook quickly, so start checking at the 5 minute mark. When the cookies are removed from the oven, place baking sheets on cooling racks to allow them to cool completely prior to decorating.

Icing

• In a large, clean and grease-free mixing bowl, sift together the powdered sugar and meringue powder. Add 5 tablespoons of the warm water. Using an electric mixer, beat on high power for 10 minutes.
• Check the consistency. You want the consistency of icing to be thick, but still has the ability to move and slide on the cookie just a little bit. If the icing is too thick and will barely move, add a few drops of water and mix well. If it is too thin beat longer, as it thickens the longer you beat it.

Decorating

• Drop a dollop of icing onto the middle of a cookie and carefully spread out towards the edges. Some icing might slowly run off the side, that’s ok – they are melting snowmen! However if it quickly runs off, the icing may be too thin. If so go back to mixing a bit more.
• Immediately place one marshmallow on the cookie for the head of the snowman and very gently press into the icing. Carefully add M&M candies for buttons. Take care to not smudge the icing as is will be soft. Repeat with remaining cookies.
• When you are ready to add the eyes and buttons, scoop out some of the remaining icing and place in a small bowl. Add some black gel coloring to the icing, place into a piping bag and pipe on arms and eyes. Repeat the process with orange food coloring to create a carrot nose.
• Finally, add a piece of licorice for the scarf and/or some sprinkles for fun!Allow icing to fully dry, which takes approximately 2 hours. Placing them in the refrigerator can help speed this up if needed.