I decided to make my decorations for an 80's themed cake out of gum paste (pre-made wilton). My questions is, how early is too early to make the decorations? AND...is the best thing to attach them to the cake royal icing? (I have only ever done MMF decorations and attached with a little bit of water).

Thanks so much in advance!

You can make them as far ahead as you would like. I have gumpaste decorations that I made months ago and just haven't used yet. They don't go bad. I usually attach with either water or vodka.

I agree! Once they are dry, just store them in an air tight container and they will last for a long time!

The figures for the cake I just made this weekend had gumpaste figures I created two weeks ago. They don't go bad. I air dry them for 24 hours then put them in a shallow tupperware dish. I attached mine with royal icing because I was concerned with the weight of them. I didn't think that just using water would work. The royal worked like a charm.

OMG thank you so much! Such good news!!!

What type decorations are you making in gumpaste? Are you making flowers, figures, cutouts?

Just random cut outs. Records, Pac Man, I HEART 80s, Hair Spray Bottle...stuff like that.

It sounds like you are jut doing cutouts that will be attached to the side of your cake? If so, why not do them in fondant? If I'm making decorations that are going to be eaten, I don't use gumpaste. In my opinion it does not taste good and is mainly used for decorative purposes only.

If you were making 3D figures or large numbers or letters to standup on top of the cake, gumpaste would be best because it dries much faster than straight fondant.

So for cutouts, and using MMF, what is too early? I would just be nice to get a head start on the decorations. The cake is for next saturday.

You can make them now. It shouldn't be a problem.