Paper2D: Setting sprites in Sprite Actors dynamically in C++

Development Programming & Scripting C++
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I have a number of assets that I imported for various “items” in my game. I have converted each asset into a Sprite.

In C++, I have subclassed a class ASLBaseSpriteActor from APaperSpriteActor, so that I can dynamically spawn various “items” in the world.

I’m struggling with dynamically setting which particular sprite should be used for a new spawned ASLBaseSpriteActor.

If I put this into the constructor:

ASLBaseSpriteActor::ASLBaseSpriteActor() {
   UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("ASLBaseSpriteActor::constructor"));
   UPaperSprite* sprite = Cast<UPaperSprite>(StaticLoadObject(UPaperSprite::StaticClass(), NULL, TEXT("/Script/Paper2D.PaperSprite'/Game/Assets/Items/apple_Sprite.apple_Sprite'")));
   UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("ASLBaseSpriteActor::Initialize2"));
   if (sprite) {
      UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("ASLBaseSpriteActor::Initialize got sptire"));
      UPaperSpriteComponent* renderComponent = this->GetRenderComponent();
      if (renderComponent) {
         this->GetRenderComponent()->SetSprite(sprite);
         UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("ASLBaseSpriteActor::Initialize got render comp"));
      }
   }
}

It works fine - I can see the “apple” item in the world upon spawning the APaperSpriteActor. The problem is that eventually, the path to the sprite will need to be a parameter. But, if I put the same block of code say into BeginPlay, I cannot see the item anymore in the world, although, based on my logs, all references to sprite and renderComponent are not null.

I have tried deferred spawning as well - from my game mode, I do:

void ASLGameModeBase::BeginPlay() {
   UWorld* const World = GetWorld();
   if (World) {
      const FTransform SpawnLocAndRotation;
      ASLBaseSpriteActor* newItem = World->SpawnActorDeferred<ASLBaseSpriteActor>(ASLBaseSpriteActor::StaticClass(), SpawnLocAndRotation);
      newItem->Initialize();
      newItem->FinishSpawning(SpawnLocAndRotation);
   }
}

I tried putting the code from the APaperSpriteActor into the APaperSpriteActor::Initialize but that doesn’t work either.

I am out of ideas, aside from subclassing APaperSpriteActor for each of my items to just set the path to the sprite in the constructor. How can I achieve what I want with just a single APaperSpriteActor class that can dynamically attach a sprite to its instance when spawned in the world, based on a path parameter?