Palitaw- what am I doing wrong?

Following the recipe here (except I omitted the linga), I made some Palitaw the other day, and everytime I make it, I can't seem to get it dry enough to the point where the bottom of the serving plate isn't a sea of sugary watered-down syrup. I just can't seem to get the rice cakes to dry out enough before rolling them in the coconut-sugar combination.

Any ideas on how to stop the watery sugar concoction from happening?