Hi guys,

I have been looking around the internet lately and I noticed that there are A LOT of places out there that you can buy pre-made cake decorations (gumpaste lilies, roses, etc...) and I was just wondering how many of you decorators out there use them? Are they worth the cost? And do your customers ask you if you made them by hand, or do they generally not care too much if they look good?
I love decorating, but I have a funny feeling that it would take me MANY, MANY years to make some of the gorgeous flowers and decorations out there!
As well, if any of you are in Canada, are you aware of any distributors here, or any in the States willing to ship to Canada?

Any help would be appreciated! A girlfriend of mine wants me to make her cake and there is no way I am going to attempt making flowers like that for the first time to put on a cake! Haha!

Thanks!

PM Hobbycraft on 32nd Ave NE has pre-made flowers. They are all white and you need to colour them with petal dust. The cost seems quite reasonable, and no shipping breakage risk.

have you seen some of the first time flowers on here? they are really good! and it is so much fun too you should totally give it a go! depends what shes after, but if its not to complicated id encourage you to go for it - toedna has some great youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/user/tonedna1?gl=GB&hl=en-GB
xx

I have used them in the past at a hotel that i worked in. They were very nice and customers liked them. Now I make my own unless it's 500 of something! LOL

Oh no! Another "scratch or mix" issue!

I weight things by the bottom line. What would it cost me to make it myself and what would it cost to just pick up the phone and have some gumpaste flowers (that were made by SOMEBODY) shipped to me? And when I figure 'cost for me to make them', that include the payroll for me (or a staffer) to sit there for hours and hours to make a gumpaste spray ... not just the ingredients.

To be totally honest, I am not all that wonderful at doing gumpaste flowers (yet). I have bought them online, and to me, they are my life saver.

I like making them myself because I think they look better, and I can make varieties that you can't buy.

I've also seen a trend away from having a lot of flowers on cakes...I used to do a lot of gumpaste cascades, but now it's just one or two bunches on the cake, or designs with more geometrics and no flowers at all.

Today I made a bunch of little cacti to put on a cake coming up...I don't think I could have bought those anywhere!

I haven't seen so many squares yet, just lots of dots, stripes and diamonds. I'm doing one with paisleys next week, and not a flower on it!

I am hoping to take the Wilton fondant & gum paste course sooner than later, so maybe that will allow me to not be soo frightened to make them! I am also on my way to check out that youtube vid right now - thanks brincess!

i buy alot of cake kits & figurines and that is a time saver for me. the shop that i purchase my supplies from sells flowers and i will more than likely purchase some from them when necessary. I do not know how to make gumpaste flowers yet.

I buy nearly all my flowers. I wouldn't make any $ at all if I took time away from marketing to sit and make flowers. I buy mostly from avalondeco .com. David is fabulous to work with and ships orders out quickly. I tend to buy all white flwoers rather than colors and airbrush, use dusts, etc. Customers know that the flowers are "handmade". They don't ask by who's hands?

I've made gumpaste flowers twice, and all I did was buy the wilton kit that has the book and the cutters. I used the gumpaste recipe from a wilton year book. It was very time consuming, although I assume with practice it would get quicker. Anyway, the first time I made them was for my Baba's 95th birthday cake, and I think they were fine. Probably a botanist would have had a heart attack, but that's okay with me. So don't assume you couldn't do it just because you haven't tried yet. On the other hand, it will take a long time, and if you don't enjoy doing them, then it will just be torture. Depending on how much time you would have to devote to them and how much you liked that kind of work, you may very well be better off buying them.

I don't enjoy making the flowers...and the premade look way better than I can do, so it's easier to but them. At most...i will buy the white and add some petal dust to enhance the colorsI don't get a lot of orders for them anyway....so it's not a huge deal. It's the same as buying fondant versus making it. no biggie.

I am all about buying gp flowers online because 1) I hate making them, and 2) I work full-time and bake as a side business.

If you have the time (and will to live) to make your own flowers, you definitely should! If not, the pre-made ones you can get online are cheap, customizable and what's more, you're helping support others in our industry.