Oh, do I remember these cookies. The soft vanilla cake like ones Mom made when I was a teenager during the 70s. I thought they were a little piece of heaven. I asked Mom if she remembers the recipe I wanted and she went right to the cookbook and right to the page. I am delighted to say these are just as I recall. Well, once I made a couple of test batches. With the first batch, I used margarine instead of shortening. I thought it would do. I was wrong. The cookies looked okay but the flavor was not right. The second try, I used the plain shortening called for in the recipe. This let the vanilla flavor shine through. The flavor from the margarine was masking the vanilla flavor. That did it. Perfect. I did cut the recipe in half to make it a little easier to handle. If you want to double each ingredient, you will have the exact recipe I got from Mom's cookbook. And by the way, I did not rename this recipe. It was already titled Mother's Sugar Cookies.

To measure the shortening, fill a 1 cup measuring cup with water to the ½ cup line. Add the shortening in spoonfuls till the water measures 1 cup. Pour off the water and you have exactly ½ cup shortening. Cream the sugar and shortening together. Add the eggs and salt and beat until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cornstarch. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour milk and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased and floured cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees about 10 to 15 minutes.