In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt, and baking soda together until the mixture is smooth.
Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the flour. Continue mixing until all of the ingredients are blended together.
Chill the dough for 1 to 2 hours or overnight. The dough will be sticky and soft, so chilling the dough is imperative when using cookie cutters.
Once the dough is chilled, roll it on a floured surface, and add flour to the top of the dough so it won’t stick. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick.
Then, use cookie cutters to make shapes. Continue rolling the dough and making shapes until the dough is gone.
Place the cookie on a lined baking sheet and bake in a 375-degree oven for 5-6 minutes.
Let the cookies cool for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
While the cookies are cooling, make the Royal icing to decorate them. Decorate how you please! For these, we made pink and white royal icing, then used a small hole piping tip and created designs.