I am going to make a cake for a lady and she sent me an email of the cake she would like to have. The only problem is I can't figure out what in the heck these little dots are made of. They don't look like edible pearls to me...I don't know what they are! Any idea?

They look like piped roal icing

It looks like small dots of frosting, maybe made with like a #2.

Beatuiful cake and good luck!!

I think they might be piping gel. The have a different sheen than the cake.

They look like piped dots..kind of like this one..
http://webhosting.web.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=560&linkpath=http://www.designmeacake.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/newphotos1/.pond/lavenderpetunias.JPG.w560h843.jpg&target=tlx_pic6vwo

Seems that the finish of the cake is a light ivory, and the dots are made in white. They can be done in RI or buttercream and then use pearl dust diluted in vodka to give them a shine.
Edna

to me it appears to be piping gel, as you can see it better from the side where it picks up light, and the dots straight on seem to be less visible. The piping gell also picks up the color of the icing behind it.

I agree and believe it's piping gel! What a neat look!

Tonedna said what I was going to say! Great cake!
Post your finished cake!

I disagree with the piping gel. They are RI or BC. Maybe with Super Pearl.

It definitely looks like piping gel to me.

If you use White Stokes piping gel then you can put the super pear dust on it to make it shimmer. Its the only piping gel that I know of that can pipe like RI. But from the picture and my experience, its RI. When I do it, I use a very small tip like a 0 or 1. Then if you have any type of peak on it, you use a small brush that is dampened with water to smooth it down.

Actually I feel if it is *that* important exactly which ingredient is used you had better contact the person who gave you the pic.
Those dots are called 'swiss dots' and can be done w/any of the types of icing already mentioned.

Edible diamonds?
http://www.fancyflours.com/site/xdpy/s/Cake%20Jewels/index.html

They are "swiss dots". Done by making a triangle of three small dots in a staggered pattern. Simple elegant.

I agree with tonedna and the others that believe they are swiss dots in the triple dot pattern done with icing... I think it's the light that makes them glow/shimmer like.

I found the pic on aboutthecake.com (see watermark?) and it says it's disco dots (not sure myself what those are lol) - gonna try to attach the link.

http://www.aboutthecake.com/weddingcakespage2.htm

It's near the middle of the page...I think the 22nd cake down.

I would now like to change my view on them(looked at the smaller version)

the picture in the op looked like royal icing to me, but the picture in the link DOES look like piping gel! (on the close-up of the cake)

She was asking what people thought the dots were made of.

The dots were piping gel mixed with white holographic disco dust then piped on with a #2. Can't go smaller than that because the dust won't go through a #1.

mystery solved!

well i dont know what swiss dots are.. but they look like French dots to me.. in BC.

french dots that i know of anyway are 3 dots that look like a triangle.

Swiss dots are three dots in a triangle.