An Essex cake baker has gone viral after making a cake version of a cottage that had a starring role in the Christmas movie The Holiday. The clip of Bridie West meticulously piping butter cream over a cottage-shaped cake has garnered more than 1.2m views on TikTok and almost 50,000 on Instagram. West had spent “a day and a couple of hours” on making the vanilla-sponge Rosehill Cottage and its swinging front gate and sign, blue fondant door and Christmas wreath, miniature red chimneys and snowy front garden. “To be fair, it wasn’t too bad,” West told the Guardian. “I don’t really plan in advance – once I have the base and shape of what I’m going to create, I just go for it. The magic is in the moment, and I just let my hands do the work.” Since starting her own cake-making business in 2018, West has taken on challenges like this before. She celebrated her 30th birthday last month with the dream house from the movie 13 Going on 30. In October, she fashioned a cake version of Luke’s Diner from the Gilmore Girls TV show. “Most people always see [the end result] and say, ‘You can’t cut that!’ But it’s the best bit,” West said. “As a cake maker, it’s such a relief when the cake is cut. It no longer has to be perfect.” West has never had any creation of hers go viral to this extent before. “I think it’s because it’s The Holiday – everybody loves The Holiday,” West said. “It’s really lovely that people love it.” The Holiday, a 2006 film starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black, also happens to be one of West’s favourite Christmas movies. She made the cake solely for her social media followers, but since it has gone live she has received an offer from someone who wants to keep the cake as a Christmas decoration. She has also received messages from two wedding clients who now want their cakes to be shaped in the image of their venues. “It’s such a great idea,” West said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.” While butter cream piping is “second nature” to West, her Rosehill Cottage model had its challenges as well. Incorporating the decorative fondant pieces and florist paste along with the butter cream “was really fiddly”, she said. Still, she felt that her model of Luke’s Diner was actually more difficult. “It had loads of shutter details and windows,” she said. West is running her business out of a studio in her parents’ home in Brentwood, where she also teaches baking and decorating classes. She has a week off coming up for Christmas, and is already planning her next creation. “I was thinking it would be lovely to do the Home Alone house or Carrie’s apartment from Sex and the City, with Auld Lang Syne playing in the background,” she laughed. “I’ll probably put a poll up on my Instagram.” Rest is not an option. “I have to create,” West said. “If I’m not creating, I go a little bit stir-crazy. I have to be making something.”