i am planning on doing some cakes for graduation for family and friends but have limited time. How far ahead can i make a cake covered in fondant and still have it be good

AIt's going to depend on your icing and filling ingredients and sometimes your cake recipe. Probably share that info and you'll get appropriate responses :D I don't mean share your actual recipes, btw bad wording!

regular cake with butter cream frosting covered in MMF

ADo you use butter in the butter cream or? I was told at a workshop that cakes are good up to 14 days with an all shortening buttercream. But please don't use that information based on my advice. i don't stand behind that and can't even imagine testing it. Who would eat 14 day old cake?

I do use butter and once I made a bd cake for my daughter and for some reason no one ever bothered to refrigerate it and we were eating on it like 4-5 days with no issue. I use a lot of sugar and the acidity preserves the butter. But I don't stand behind that either :-D I tell my customers to serve the cake the day they get it and to refrigerate left overs, so I've never learned exactly what the truth is. Although it seems like something I should know.

There are certain types of cakes that need to age like a week.... And the temperature of the room matters.