Answers for Daily #8

The starting word was

First moves

15 words are one letter away from FAKE.

BAKE: verb To cook using an oven, especially baked goods.
CAKE: noun A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.
HAKE: noun A hook; a pot-hook.
LAKE: noun A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.
MAKE: verb To create.
RAKE: noun A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar…

Also: SAKE, TAKE, WAKE, FACE, FADE, FAME, FARE, FATE, FAZE

FAKE → BAKE → BABE → BABY

Once the words before it are used, nobody can change BABY: a dead end, worth 3 extra points.

Every Daily hides one golden word a few moves from the start. This one was FORT.

From FAKE, 2,140 words can be reached one letter at a time.

Definitions from Wiktionary