Black Forrest Rice Cake Treat
Create a delicious, show-stopping, no-bake, fruit-sweetened dessert "cake" that will keep you on track with your healthy eating!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Chocolate Cherry Dessert Hummus (or sub with store-bought chocolate hummus)
- 3 fresh strawberries (similar in size)
- 2 fresh cherries
- 3 salt-free brown rice cakes
- 3 tsp coconut "sprinkles" (optional, see notes)
Instructions
STEP 1: Preparing the ingredients
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Make a batch of the Chocolate Cherry Dessert Hummus and chill it overnight. This will serve as the cake frosting/icing.
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When you're ready to assemble the cake, add 1 cup of the chilled chocolate hummus into a piping bag fitted with a large open-star tip. You'll only use about 1/2 cup of the hummus but it's better to pipe with more hummus rather than less. Keep the prepared piping bag in the fridge while you wash and cut the fresh fruit--this will keep the icing cool and stiff, making it easier to pipe.
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Wash and pat dry the strawberries and cherries. Slice one of the cherries in half and remove the pit, leave the other cherry whole. Cut the tops off the strawberries and cut each berry into quarters.
STEP 2: Assembling the layers
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Place one rice cake on your serving plate. If you want to secure the rice cake in place you can pipe a small dollop of hummus onto the plate and press the rice cake down on top of it.
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Pipe a small 1-inch swirl of the chocolate hummus near the edge of the rice cake. Then add a quarter strawberry beside the swirl with the cut side of the strawberry face down on the rice cake and with the larger part of the strawberry facing outward. The goal is to have five wedges of strawberry and five swirls of chocolate around the perimeter of the rice cake.
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Finish with one more 1-inch swirl of the hummus-icing in the middle of the cake and press a halved cherry face-up into the center swirl.
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Place the second rice cake on top of the bottom decorated layer. At this point make sure that the new rice cake layer fits flat and level. Turn and adjust placement as needed--you may need to move the berries around or trim them to get it level.
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Repeat the decoration process, referencing the bottom rice cake for icing and berry placement--you want the pattern to line up in each layer.
STEP 3: Decorating the top layer
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Holding the sides of the rice cake, pipe a dollop of frosting in the center and use a knife or spatula to smoothly coat the entire surface. This should be a thin coating.
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Place the coated cake on top of the stack.
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Pipe a classic shell boarder along the perimeter of the top rice cake and top with a 1-inch swirl of frosting in the middle of the top layer and adorn with a fresh whole cherry.
Recipe Notes
MAKE AHEAD: You can make the cake up to 4 hours in advance and store uncovered in the refrigerator. Plastic wrap is not recommended as the icing will stick to it.
SERVING SUGGESTION: Simply lift off each layer and serve with extra fresh fruit on the side.
FRUIT SUBSTITUTION: You can use all strawberries or all cherries. If you want to use all cherries you'll need 6 cherries in total. If you're using all strawberries you'll need 3 1/2 in total.
STORING LEFTOVERS: I don't recommend storing leftovers for more than 1 day in the refrigerator. The rice cakes will begin to soften from the moisture in the hummus-icing. It still tastes great but it has a less crunchy texture.
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PIPE THE ICING: Spread a 1/4-inch thick layer of the hummus-icing onto each rice cake. Cut the berries and cherries into smaller pieces and put an even layer of fruit on top of each chocolate layer. More moisture will be released from the fruit the smaller you slice the pieces so that will cause the layers to stick together more when serving.