How do you cut a cake that heavily encrusted with fondant embellishments - like draping or billowing, or a fondant cake that has royal icing scrollwork all over it?

If it were me, I'd remove the worst of it and then cut through the rest.

If a customer is asking...I let them figure it out. After all, they ordered it. Haha, My job ends when they take possession of the cake!

Laughing, because I've had people order sculptured cakes and then they want to know how to cut it. I just chuckle and say "I'm leaving that to YOU! I just made what you ordered!" But then I do try to give them a few helpful hints.

I brought the Boxes & Bows DVD Set by Sharon Zambito and she made a very good point...Leave the cake as is...instruct the customer to use a very sharp knife & cut through the whole cake... if the customer tries to remove or undo (in this case a box cake with fondant bows & fondant drape around the box) It will fall apart & that wouldn't look to good.

I instructed them to do just that ... & they said it worked perfectly

HTH