Hi there. I am new to this forum and began decorating in May of this year. I started out with fondant because that is what drew my interest to cakes in the first place. I don't understand when to use royal icing vs. gumpaste. What can any of you expierenced people out there tell me about this and thank you for any advice to this newcomer.

RI is primarily used for piping designs on a cake, stenciling, making patterns you can pick up and place where you want to (after they dry), decorating cookies....etc., etc.

Gumpaste is for modeling flowers, or figurines, and I use it a lot for monograms and plaques.