I generally prefer to make my own gumpaste flowers and decor but wondered has anyone used the pre-made and if so, what do you think of the product? (I've seen the Caljava flowers in particular and am wondering about their quality.)

Thanks....

If you're a small business owner with moderate clientele, pre-made decorations not only cost you a big chunk of your profit, but it takes away the edge you have against competitors.

If you have high volume of cakes consistently, then pre-made decorations will save you a huge amount of labor costs and would be something to really look into.

Quality of pre-made decorations? That all depends on who you buy from and essentially what you are willing to spend on them. High price means a more detailed quality product.

I watched a couple of the promo videos Caljava had. Here's the one with Ruth Rickey (who I adore!):

I like making my own because I can personalize them and make them look better than the premade ones. I also have a feeling they're made in some sweatshop somewhere, some of them are so cheap.

I ordered roses a little over a year ago (I still can't make a decent rose). I ordered both fully open roses and buds, both in the color "cream." Both were ordered from the same place. The fully open ones were quite yellow while the buds were kind of peachy- but at least closer to cream. Later on, I found out the company I ordered from is the same company a local cake supply store uses for their pre-made flowers.

The flowers themselves looked nice. Only one broke in shipping. It was just the color that was really messed up. They at least should have matched each other, in my opinion.

Thanks everyone for your input...it is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for posting this video. I have a wedding cake this summer and don't have the gum-paste flower experience (yet) to make the roses. Will most likely be ordering through Caljava... way less stress! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

gumpastesugarflowers.com has a great selection too.  They have a great selection of colors and the prices are very reasonable.