Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer cream together on medium speed the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Turn your mixer down to low and stir in the yolk and vanilla extract. Stir in the molasses and milk just until combined.

Slowly stir in the flour mixture into the butter mixture, just stirring until combined. Make sure you do not overmix the dough.

Lay out two sheets of parchment paper on the counter (or table) and divide the gingerbread cookie dough in half and place each half onto a sheet of parchment.

Place a piece of parchment paper on top of each cookie dough pile.

Using a rolling pin, roll the gingerbread dough out in between the paper until the dough is 1/4 of an inch thick.

Place the dough onto sheet pans and put them in the freezer for 15-30 minutes or until cold and firm.

Working with one sheet of gingerbread cookie dough at a time cut out your shapes.

With a thin spatula remove the shapes from the parchment and place them on your cookie sheet leaving an inch gap between the cookies.

Once you have made your first set of cut outs, reroll any extra dough and place the gingerbread cookie dough back in the fridge for 5 minutes or so and then use cookie cutters to cut out more shapes. Continue until you have used all the cookie dough up.

If needed you can bake the cookies as you put the gingerbread cut outs on a tray and fill it.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until firm around the outside of the cookie.

Let them cool for 5 minutes on the sheet pan then transfer onto a cooling rack.