Cream the butter, sugar together until light and fluffy (approximately 3-4 minutes)

Add the molasses, egg, and vanilla and blend until combined.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, allspice, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and blend, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as needed.

Add the remaining flour mixture and blend until a soft dough forms.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each half with plastic wrap.

Chill for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

When ready to bake, unwrap the chilled dough and divide each in half.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the gingerbread dough to an even ¼" thickness.

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, rerolling the remaining dough to make additional cookies.

Place the cut cookies on to parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes (conventional oven), rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking process.

Cool the cookies completely on wire racks.

Blend all the ingredients (starting with ¼ cup warm water) on low speed.

If needing a thinner consistency, add a touch more warm water at a time until desired consistency.

Store the royal icing in air-tight containers at room temperature.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, add the royal icing to a piping bag (or zip-top bag with a small snip in the corner), and pipe the icing onto the cookies (see video).

While the icing is wet, sprinkle the nonpareils and sanding sugar liberally onto the wet icing.

Allow the cookies to sit and dry for at least one hour before turning the cookies over and allowing the excess decorations to fall away.

Allow the cookies to dry an additional 4 hours before stacking for gifting.