I am looking at making the NFSC recipe posted by KHalstead.

However I need to know the following please:

What is a stick of butter? I am in Australia, so terminology is different.

Do I have to use shortening? The only thing I would be able to access would be Copha .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copha

or would Copha work in this recipe?

Can I decorate these with fondant?

Many thanks for any assistance

Alternatively if anyone has a good shortbread recipe ( I need to make 50 decorated cookies for Monday)

Many thanks

A stick of butter is 4oz, 1/4 pound, or approx. 113.25 grams of butter.

It looks like it says that it can be substituted with shortening. You can decorate cookies with whatever you want. I use the carmie00 glaze recipe on here. It dries hard and you can stack them.

I pretty much use fondant all the time on my cookies. They dry beautifully and stack well. Attach the fondant with a tiny bit of corn syrup. Works great.

ALVARGA, do you use marshmallow fondant? I have been dying to try the fondant on the cookies because a lot of people say that they don't usually like fondant, but they love it on cookies.

I'm also in Australia....your local cake decorating shop should sell shortening (solite).....or I have friends who have had success substituting with either Nuttelex or regular "Fairy" cooking butter...

I use marshmallow fondant that I make. Everyone loves it. Take a look at my cookies. They are all fondant with royal accents. I always leave the cookies on cooling racks to dry overnight. Then I dust them with edible glitter or dust and wrap them. I love doing them this way.

I don't know if I would use the copha, It said that this fat is normally melted and added to other ingredients. I'm not sure if that would throw off the recipe or not.
I like to use shortening in my NFSC to help keep the cookies from spreading. You don't have to use it. You can use all butter. I also omit the baking powder so he cookies don't spread.
These cookies can be decorated with fondant.
I like to cut my fondant pieces while the cookies are in the oven. when the cookies come out, put the fondant on the hot cookie and it will stick with no problems.