In a bowl take butter and beat until creamy, next add brown sugar and molasses and beat on medium-high speed until creamy. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

Sift and add flour, salt, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves into the mixture and mix all together to form a dough.

Divide the dough into half, make them into a disc shape and wrap them tightly in a plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 175 C.

Remove 1 disc of the chilled dough and roll out the disc until ¼ inch thick. With the help of a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut into shapes.

Bake the cookies for about 9-10 minutes for soft cookies (to make it little bit crisp bake for few more minutes)

Allow the cookies to cool completely after cooling, decorate as desired.

In a bowl take powdered sugar, meringue powder, and vanilla extract and beat for 2-3 minutes adding water gradually (1 teaspoon at a time)

Beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Divide the icing into different bowls and add desired colors.

Fill it into individual piping bags for decorating.