Sugarpaste Help needed

[NonsenseTalker]

Hi All, really need some basic help regarding sugarpaste.

I would like to decorate a plain cake for my son's birthday party. I would like to 'paint' it with food colouring and then make leaves out of sugarpaste. (Or do those aerosol cans of spray paint actually work)?

My questions are:
How do I use sugarpaste? Do I need to dry it out so it goes rock hard? How long does that take?
Can I make leaves in batches, storing them in a container and then assemble days later?
How long will it stay edible for?
Do I need to use sugarpaste specifically, or ready to roll/use icing?

I am getting contradictory advice and now I'm really confused! My local craft supply shop even told me that there's no difference between sugar/flower paste and ready to roll icing (I'm sure that's wrong) and that it needs to be eaten in 3 days, but the icing I bought from there has a long use by date on it!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

They are the same thing. It won't go rock hard (that's royal icing) and I've made a cake and covered it in fondant up to a week in advance and it's been fine.

The leaves can be made in advance and stored in tupperware for a fair while, make sure it's an airtight box or they will dry and crack.

Flower paste is different to the roll out icing, flower paste goes rock hard and is quite expensive used on adult cakes where you need lots of fine detail.
Cut out your leaves, air dry them then put them into an airtight box. Will keep for a long while and perfect for a child's cake.

Sugarpaste and flower paste are two completely different things.

Thanks for that. I seem to have been sold ready to roll icing, so I will have a play about and see if I can make anything that resembles what I want it to! At least I can make in advance while I have time on my hands.

The leaves will keep for ages in an airtight container.