In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda.

In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg, vanilla and molasses and continue mixing until incorporated.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients, mixing well between additions, until fully incorporated. Divide the dough into 2 large balls. Wrap each in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

On a heavily floured surface, roll out the gingerbread dough to about 1/8” to 1/4” inch thick. Use gingerbread man cookie cutters to cut out the dough. Re-roll any extra dough and cut out more cookies.

Place gingerbread men 1” apart on prepared baking sheets. For a standard-sized gingerbread man cookie cutter, bake for 10 to 12 minutes, just until the edges are set. (If your cookie cutter is smaller, watch closely, your bake time will likely be closer to 8 minutes.)

Then remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. It should be thick, but still thin enough to pipe.

Transfer icing to a piping bag with a small tip. Pipe faces, buttons and squiggly lines on gingerbread men, as desired.