Preheat oven to 200C.
Cream together butter and sugar until pale.
Add in vanilla and milk and beat until fluffy.
Mix together flour and baking powder in a bowl.
Add cocoa powder and beat until incorporated.
Add a cup of flour and beat to incorporate.
Now add the second cup and beat again to incorporate.
Finally add the third cup of flour and mix by hand to make a sift dough.
If you feel the dough sticky, then add extra flour until it becomes non sticky.
Dust the counter with flour.
Divide the dough into four equal portions.
Roll a portion into a 1/8″ thick disc.
Dip a cutter in flour and cut out cookies out of the rolled out dough.
Remove cookies with spatula and place on a greased tray.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Remove the tray from oven and let it sit on counter for 10 minutes. When they come out of oven, the cookies will be very soft and any attempt at removing them from the tray will result in broken, disfigured cookies. So try to remove them after 10 minutes.
Touch the cookies to see whether they have firmed up. Remove them carefully with a spatula and arrange on a wire rack. Finish with the remaining dough.
Allow all the cookies to cool completely before icing them.
