Spongedrop is a boutique cake and coffee shop at 10 Salisbury Avenue, Mount Maunganui, run by a passionate team of bakers and baristas whipping up cupcakes, cakes, macarons, cheese scones, coffee and treats daily. The cakery launched in July 2012 at The Little Big Markets before opening its bricks-and-mortar store in December 2013, and has since become a much-loved part of the local community.
Founder Danielle Cubis (Dani) named the cakery after the small baked sponge cakes from the classic Edmonds Cookbook that she used to make as a child. Everything is made from scratch in Spongedrop's tiny on-site kitchen using real ingredients, including real NZ butter, organic NZ milk, free range eggs, Chelsea sugar, Whittakers chocolate, Equagold cocoa and Heilala Vanilla, with a focus on supporting New Zealand producers.
The shop's cabinet is filled with sweet treats and its famous cheese scones, served alongside Coffee Supreme coffee and pots of Websters Tea. Spongedrop also caters for weddings, creating custom tiered cakes, cake tasting tables or cupcake towers, and its cute cottage building opens out onto Coronation Park, perfect for a picnic blanket on a sunny day.
Spongedrop began in July 2012 as a stall at The Little Big Markets, before opening its own bricks-and-mortar store in December 2013 at 10 Salisbury Avenue, Mount Maunganui. Since then, the boutique cake and coffee shop has become a much-loved part of the local community, run by a team of bakers and baristas whipping up cupcakes, cakes, macarons, cheese scones, coffee and treats daily.
Founder Danielle Cubis, known to regulars simply as Dani, always dreamed of a space where she could spend her days creating baked goods to share with family and friends. She named the cakery Spongedrop after the small baked sponge cakes from the classic Edmonds Cookbook that she used to make as a child — a nod to home baking that still shapes how the shop operates today. Everyone on the Spongedrop team brings their own touch, whether that's a passion for baking or cake decorating, a love of coffee, or a love of customer service.
Everything at Spongedrop is made from scratch in the shop's tiny on-site kitchen, using the kind of ingredients you'd use at home. That means real NZ butter, organic NZ milk, free range eggs, Chelsea sugar, Whittakers chocolate, Equagold cocoa, and Heilala Vanilla, with a deliberate focus on supporting New Zealand producers wherever possible. It's this attention to real ingredients, the shop says, that gives its cakes their distinctive taste.
The cake range spans favourite flavours like Classic Carrot Cake, Lush Lemon Cake, a S'mores-inspired Campfire Cake, Deluxe Chocolate Cake, Raspberry White Chocolate Cake, Coconut Lime & Passionfruit Cake, and Cookies & Cream Cake, alongside classic cakes, fun party cakes, and cakes for gender reveals and new babies. Cupcakes come in flavours including Heilala Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Raspberry, Chocolate, Lemon Cheesecake and Coconut Passionfruit, plus a Mixed Box for sampling a bit of everything.
On the counter, Spongedrop's famous cheese scones are a well-known drawcard — the shop warns they sell out quickly, so it pays to get in early. Coffee comes from Coffee Supreme, and tea drinkers can settle in with a soothing pot of Websters Tea.
Spongedrop also caters to weddings, creating custom-designed tiered cakes, cake tasting tables or cupcake towers for couples planning their big day, with a Wedding Taster Box available for anyone wanting to sample flavours ahead of time. For a more personal touch on any occasion, the Smudge Cake lets customers choose their own colour palette for a completely custom look.
Spongedrop's cute cottage building opens out onto Coronation Park, making it an easy spot to grab a treat and settle outside on a sunny day — the shop even suggests bringing a picnic blanket to relax and soak up the sweetness. The Mount Maunganui store is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8:30am to 2pm, closed Mondays, giving locals and visitors a reliable window to drop in for cake, coffee, or one of those famous cheese scones before they're gone.