Hi Gidget! So lovely to hear from you. I hope you all are doing well. Haha, I totally would leave out the cloves for that reason as well. Gross! My stepfather is allergic to cloves and I leave them out of every recipe I personally make out of habit. I like to use allspice in place of cloves and nutmeg as it has a much more pleasant taste and is cheaper. When I make it for myself, I often times just use cinnamon and maybe a bit of ginger as it’s just as pleasant and cheap. Feel free to mix the spices around. I would recommend at least a tsp of cinnamon as without any spice, it’s a little bland as pumpkin really doesn’t have a strong flavor when baked. Any time you see cloves or nutmeg in my recipes, you know it can be omitted as I usually skip them to save money, haha! Glad to hear you have a darling husband! He’s a keeper. 🙂