Recently, Emily and I made a bunch of pretend play sweets from dollar store sponges for her little sister’s holiday gifts. They were great fun, super frugal, AND very easy to make!! Emily cannot wait to gift these to Clara as part of her Christmas gift, and I love how pretend play food can lead to hours of imaginative fun!
The sponges we used for the cake were sold in packs of 2 at the dollar store. I used scissors to cut the sponge into a cake-slice shape. I’ve heard that an electric knife would work very well for this, but sadly I don’t own one, so scissors it was (and they worked well too)!
Once you have two cake shapes cut from two different sponges, use some hot glue to adhere the two layers of your cake together.
Next, I invited my “cake decorating expert” to get to work decorating all these lovely cakes with fabric paint. She LOVED this!!!
Emily kept talking about how she cannot wait to give these to Clara, and all the fun pretend parties they can host for their friends, dolls, and stuffed animals!!
Of course, I couldn’t resist decorating a few cake slices of my own!
We made a few other pretend play sweets using sponges from the dollar store, including these vanilla wafer cookies….
…and this cupcake! The sponges are cut in half to form long strips, then rolled up together and held in place with a rubber band. You can even find these cute ramekins (sold in packs of 3) at the dollar store too!
Now THIS is my kind of baking!
Have fun!!
Dear Valerie,
This sponge cake is.. REALLY SPONGY!
Love,
Mark
You didn’t expect me to actually CLEAN with the sponges, did you?? 😉
Dear Valerie,
Please invite me over for a Spongy cake party!
Love them,
Angelique
Yes!!! 😀
Kinda too realistic looking to have around my bunch…hee! hee!
I know, right?? I’m totally craving cakes and sweets now… lol!
Nice! What kind of paint did you use that will dry up and be decorative all the time instead of smudge? 😀
It’s just puffy fabric paint — they are great fun to make! 🙂
Tell Emily that my girls will be over to play soon 🙂
Adorable!
Jody
Fantastic!! Bring some tea — great fun! 🙂
This. Is. Brilliant! It will go perfectly with Logan’s little store he likes to play right now. 🙂
Blessings,
Val
Yay!! They would be perfect for store, or a pretend bakery! Have fun!! xoxo
I LOVE this idea! How fun!!! Your so creative!
Thanks, sweetie! I bet your girly-girls would love them & they are LOTS of fun to make!! 🙂
Really creative, Valerie! Love them all 🙂
Pretend play with play food is big at our house too, I think we have to do this now 😉
Thanks for the great ideas, as always!
I’m so happy to hear that, Julia! Have fun crafting with the kiddos!! 🙂
This is absolutely brilliant. I am sure Clara will love these gifts.
Emily and I really hope so! Thanks, Natalie!!
These are brilliant! I am going to the dollar store tomorrow to buy some sponges!
Perfect!! 🙂 Have fun!!!
Hmmmmm…… This will work well with my plans for Christmas…….
Tired of all the baking?? I understand. 😉
Valerie,
I do crafts daily with my 3 yo and never thought of this one! I will definitely have to do this one! I’m sure she will love it! Then she’ll even have more playfood for her play kitchen! Perfect!
Thanks for the great idea! 🙂
That makes me SO happy, Daphne!!! have fun crafting with your little one! 🙂
I LOVE these! They look so fun and pretty. What a great idea!!
Thank you, Jackie!!!
What a great idea Valerie! I’ve been working on ideas for a pretend play bakery for my girls… I think we need some sponge cakes for it!
YES!! Mandatory sponge cakes!! 😉 Have fun, Terri!
These are AWESOME! So creative and easy to do! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, E!! Enjoy!
Wholy Cow! These are amazing! I’m hoping that my in-laws get my son a pretend kitchen for Christmas and this would be great to add. You’re so creative!
Awesome!!! Have fun, Amanda!
Can’t wait to make these! My 4 year old son is obsessed with play kitchens and I need a replacement cake for our church school to celebrate birthdays. This’ll be perfect.
Yay!! What great timing!! Have fun! 🙂
Fabulous. We used salt dough to make rolls, a little bread loaf or ‘sugar cookies’. After baking it, apply some clear varnish and they will last forever. We still have some my hubby made as a child : )
What a lovely idea! I love that your hubby made some when he was a kid, and they’re still around — WOW!!!
I discovered your blog a few weeks ago and love your creative ideas! These sponge cakes are just so lovely! I will have to try them sometime! Thanks for sharing all these creative activities 🙂
You’re welcome, Anneliese! They are so much fun to make — Enjoy!! 🙂
This is a really fabulous project!!
Thank you, Heather!! It means a lot coming from the Queen of dollar store crafting!!! 😀
I was thinking about making my son felt food to go in his kitchen for Christmas this year, and this would be perfect! Those are seriously cute! I love them. Thank you for posting. Her excitement is so sweet!
What great timing!! This would be a GREAT addition to his play kitchen! Have fun, Joyce!
I LOVE these!!
Awww… thanks, Christina! 🙂
Wow! Those are wonderful. I had to tweet and pin!
Just stopping by to let you know that I’ve featured your craft on Family Fun Crafts! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/sponge-sweet-treats/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, I’d love it if you would submit them. 🙂 If you would like to display a
featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above.
You are so wonderful! Thank you for your sharing! I will apply this in my English classroom. 🙂