I have a cake coming up with this design. Any tricks on getting the dots so uniformed? Will be on a buttercream cake. 

Looks to me like fondant that was rolled with a textured / embossing rolling pin like the one below, then wrapped around the tiers.  The gold bands hide the top edge seam.  Here's a link  https://annettescakes.com/product/textured-embossed-acrylic-rolling-pins-fondant-cake-decorating-dots/

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I agree, gscout73.  I doubt anyone can pipe that many dots so perfectly spaced and exactly the same size and I KNOW no one could apply pearls in such a precise way.

it makes me nervous to look at this cake -- so many dots so perfect -- it nearly hurts -- nothing less than dotted swiss --

but gscout's brilliant close up -- how do you do that -- makes it look like royal piped dots applied individually -- omg -- i need a dose of something -- and they are not perfectly applied either -- it just looks that way

K8, that is the image example for the textured roller at the link I  gave.  I copied it from the site. I think this was used.

oh oh oh -- i misunderstood -- thank you gscout for clearing that up --

so if you had one of those laser levels or just some mad skills -- it's only rows of 10 - 12 pearls each -- perfectly tediously doable actually -- a template that you could poke a hole in for each one -- remove the template and apply the beads -- on a teeny tiny cake -- easy peasy

Since it will be on a buttercream cake .... I think I’ll try icing the cake, then pop it into the freezer for about 15 minutes, use the textured mat that I found , and then apply the edible 4mm pearls with a small dot of icing. 

You need the FMM Polka Dot Press 2. 

Gingerloks, that makes inward impressions rather than raised dots. And would be perfect for placement of the mini pearls. But Littlemo12, be prepared to take a very, very long time to place those one at a time. UNLESS YOU HAVE A DRAGEEKISS TOOL. You are going to go out of your mind. I recommend you taking a practice run on a " just so you have an idea as to how much time to allow yourself for the larger tier sizes for your client's cake.

curved hemostats work better than tweezers but yes like gscout said the drageekisss tool from evil cake genius would be top of my list if you can use 4mm pearls 

http://evilcakegenius.com/index.php/drageekiss-edible-pearl-applicator.html

Thanks girls. Just ordered the evil cake genius tool. Not looking forward to the tedious work, especially since it’s a 5 tier. I have a pair of the curved hemostats but sure hoping the gadget comes in. 

I always used the curved hemostats and found them far superior to tweezers, but nothing can come close to the Drageekiss for applying pearls.  It will do smaller pearls, too, just not as smoothly.  I used a few different sizes.  With the small ones, sometimes two pearls want to come out at the same time, but it still beats applying them one at a time.  It is a "must have" for anyone who applies a lot of pearls.

Uhh..ya you make the impression on the cake and than pipe Royal Icing on the impression dots...that's how that tool works, no dragees required. Google it. 

i would pipe those myself -- if my hands piped anymore -- you can get the perfect drop of royal icing to suck the tail in automatically by playing with the water level in the royal and if you use gum arabic in the mix the dots will shine beautifully -- i would use a laser beam level or a stencil to mark the placement -- after you are in the groove for a while you might not need the markers in advance --

*** oh you know what i would do -- i would place pins into  a styrofoam dummy and mark the placement that way -- using a cold cake like you said and i'd just rinse the pin tips off with hot water to clean them -- i have some cool foam cutting tools -- i'd cut a thin section out of cake dummies the same size as the cakes and stick hat pins through -- make so many rows then just roll it over and repeat --

but you're creating so much beauty -- every pearl placed and line competed gives it ever the more awe inspiring radiance/pleasantness -- so that you end up motivating your own self for the thrill of the actions you perform -- 

i hope these are small tiers you have to do though

get your favorite music or movie on, a great snack, something lovely to drink -- make yourself a party out of it -- plan to call an old friend and chat -- the time will go so much faster -- get an audible book going --  

probably would need to use toothpicks because hat pins won't leave much mark -- that's what i would do