Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees fan-forced).
In a medium/large mixing bowl cream the softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and egg.
Add the flour and baking powder, combine to form a soft cookie dough, you can either use a beater or wooden spoon for this stage.
Use a small scoop or 15ml tablespoon to make even portions of dough (you will end up with approximately 50-54 cookies. Roll into balls and put on a lined baking tray/cookie sheet.
Gently flatten the dough balls, I do this by placing a small piece of baking paper on top and gently pressing down on each cookie with a flat bottomed measuring cup, you can use your hand or a spoon/fork.
Decorate your cookies with m and ms. (red and green ones if you are going for a Christmas cookie!
Bake for at 180 degrees celsius 6 minutes, you don't want these cookies to be too golden. The cookies will be soft when you remove them from the oven but they will become more firm as they cool.