Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 2 baking sheets by spraying them with nonstick spray or putting down silicone baking mats.
Add butter and sugar in a large bowl, beating until it's creamy and combined. Add eggs, vanilla extract and anise extract and continue to mix.
In another bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time into the wet mixture, mixing until well combined. The dough will feel and look sticky, that's ok and what we want!
Break off a small piece of dough and roll into a ball about the size of a ping pong ball (about 1 1/2 tablespoons).
Roll the dough between your hands to form a rope, about 6 inches.
Make a figure 8 with the dough, connecting the ends. Place cookie on baking sheet and continue until all the dough is gone. This recipe makes approximately 18 cookies.
Bake 14-16 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly golden brown.
While the cookies are baking prepare the icing mixture by adding powdered sugar, milk, anise extract and vanilla extract in a shallow bowl, mixing with a spoon.
As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, allow to cool for just 2 minutes. We need them to still be warm for the icing! Dip each cookie into the icing and then immediately add sprinkles on top.
The icing dries very fast, so don't dip all the cookies in the icing first and then come back for the sprinkles, the icing will already be dry. It's best to do one cookie or a couple at a time.
Once icing is completely hardened, store cookies in an air-tight container or plastic bag. The cookies last for about 4-5 days.