In a medium bowl combine flour, ginger, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, salt, baking powder and baking soda then set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment whip the butter and brown sugar until fully combined then stir in molasses, egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir until fully incorporated. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with the non stick baking mat and set aside. Lay a piece of wax paper down on a large counter space. Place half of the dough onto the wax paper and place a second sheet of wax paper over the dough. Roll out the dough in between the two sheets until it is 1/2 cm thick.
Cut out 16 small shapes and move each to the baking sheet. I chose trees but stars, mini gingerbread people or even hearts would be perfect for this. If they are hard to remove from the paper, use a floured icing spatula and be very gentle or refrigerate the dough longer. Bake for 4 minutes, then cool completely on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack.
Mix the leftover dough with the second half and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Cover with wax paper and roll out until it is 1 cm thick, then remove the wax paper and place the parchment paper with the rolled out dough onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely on the baking sheet.
Decorate the gingerbread cookies if you desire. Wrap the gingerbread sheet and cookies in plastic until it's time to make the cheesecake.