In 1965, the L.A. Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs, one of just 20 pitchers to accomplish such a feat in the history of Major League Baseball.

The event still resonates today with baseball fans. And for a Toronto group of Koufax admirers, it was time to immortalize the grand event. Given the time of year, they thought, why not do it in gingerbread?

So Dave Rutt, a baseball blogger who details the adventure of building the stadium and the last play of that now famous game in his blog, joined his roommates Leonard Elias, Nathan Elias and their other siblings, Gabriel and Becca, and close friends to build this tribute to Koufax.

Building gingerbread monuments in the Elias family, who are Jewish, began six years ago when they were looking for something fun to do en famille during the holiday season.

Ironically, Leonard’s birthday falls on Christmas Day. The siblings, who range in age from 24 to 32, first created out of gingerbread the reclamation of the temple or the story of Hanukkah, explained Nathan Elias in an interview with the Star.

“It’s a lot of fun for us,” he explained. The first year the siblings used a gingerbread kit. Then they branched out and began making the gingerbread from scratch. The second time they built a gingerbread monument to commemorate another event in Jewish history – the story of Masada where the Jews were besieged by the Romans.

“The goal is to do it within a 24-hour period,” he explained. “Over the last few years, we’ve tried to make it bigger, smarter, funnier and neater.”

Despite all their best efforts, however, they’ve sometimes met with failure – like the year they tried to capture the parting of the Red Sea. “It was a disaster,” confessed Nathan Elias.

But this year the group decided to turn their attention to the sporting world and Sandy Koufax, one of the most outstanding Jewish athletes in American sport. For them Koufax’s perfect game represents “the best thing a pitcher can do.”

So beginning in August, Leonard Elias drew the design of the Los Angeles stadium and the last play of Koufax’s perfect game in preparation for this year’s gingerbread marathon.

And this past weekend the siblings, Rutt and a couple of other close friends converged on a downtown Toronto house to build the stadium. They used 20 pounds of sugar and about 10 pounds of flour. They mixed the gingerbread Friday night, refrigerated it and on Saturday as each piece came out of the oven the construction as the friends and siblings ate and drank. “The real question was: ‘Will the gingerbread hold?’ If we don’t cook it long enough, it could crack.”

They needn’t have worried. The 30 by 40 inch stadium, with concession stand, scoreboard, players and fans (made of Gummy Bears and chocolate Santas) is a work of culinary quirkiness, being heralded throughout the Twitter sphere and making an entry on Huffington Post, not to mention a detailed account on Bottom of the Fourth, Rutt’s blog.

Says Rutt of the creation: “It was the most delicious baseball game in history.”

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Adds Nathan Elias: “The success had a lot to do with the strength of the design. Everyone there would say it was a lot of work, but they’d also say it was the most fun. It can be described as a school project for grownups.”

Now with the stadium complete, the group is thinking of next year’s project. Perhaps, the Tower of Babel.