Sweet Deal? State Pol's 9-Year-Old Offered $10K for Cake

Agriculture Comm. Adam Putnam forced his daughter to return $10,000 payment

There are sweetheart deals and then there is the kind of sweet tooth that borders on bribery.

State Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has found himself in a bit of a scandal and has his 9-year-old daughter's baking ability to thank for it.

This week, a company that does big business in Florida paid $10,000 for Putnam's daughter's tasty creation, a chocolate hazelnut cake that was entered into a couny fair.

Unless those hazelnuts are really golden nuggets, that seems a bit pricey for an elementary schooler's cooking skills.

The cake won best treat at the Polk County Fair and was auctioned off. That's when fertilizer giant, Mosaic, stepped in with the briefcase of cash for a piece of cake.

Something smelled about the proposal, and it wasn't the fertilizer.

Putnam, a Republican, said Friday that he made his daughter give the money back, but by then it was too late. Others had run with the story as if Putnam's hand had been caught in a cookie jar.

"It's been extremely awkward and embarrassing," Putnam said, according to the Miami Herald. "And it's gone viral."

Mosaic representatives said they are not sure why an official from the company paid so much for the cake, but they are conducting an "aggressive investigation."

Putnam said to make up for making his daughter give back the $10,000, he bought her and the rest of the girls iPods.

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