In a medium mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar. Use a hand held mixer and beat on medium-high speed until the butter is creamy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated.

Sift the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt over the top of the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until a dough forms and no flour streaks remain. Do not overmix.

Pour the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a disc. Wrap completely in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Lightly flour your work surface roll the chilled dough to ¼ inch thickness. If you want thicker cookies, don't roll the dough so thin.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out your shapes, and place the cookies at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Re-roll any scraps to cut into more cookies. Avoid re-rolling the dough more than twice - otherwise the cookies will be tough.

I recommend baking one baking sheet of cookies at a time. While the first batch is baking, refrigerate the other baking sheet of cookies. If the cookies feel as though they got too warm while rolling and cutting, place both baking sheets in the refrigerator to cool for about 10 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until the edges turn slightly golden. If you want crispier cookies, bake for a couple minutes longer. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet set on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to the cooling rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the royal icing and decorate the cookies!

In a small mixing bowl, add the powdered sugar and maple syrup. Whisk together until the powdered sugar is moist. Add a teaspoon of milk at a time to get to your desired icing/decorating consistency.