Take butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until combined and the mixture turns creamy.

Add flour, salt, and baking powder into the mixture; next, add milk (1 tablespoon at a time) and mix all together to form a dough.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 175 C.

Remove the chilled dough and roll out the disc until ¼ inch thick. With the help of a large size circle cookie cutter, cut into round shapes.

Bake the cookies for about 9-10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.

In a bowl, take powdered sugar, meringue powder, and vanilla extract and beat for 2-3 minutes adding water gradually (1 teaspoon at a time), Beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Divide the icing into two different bowls. Keep more than half icing white and add brown liquid food color to the remaining icing.

Dip one side of the cookies in the white icing and let it dry. (You can also pipe the icing on the cookies if you’re now comfortable with dipping).

Pipe (brown icing) the antlers and eyes on each cookie using a piping bag with a tiny hole.

Pipe a drop of brown icing to mark the nose (don’t use white icing for this because you might get confused about where to stick the m&m’s), and stick green m&m’s as the nose.