Cakes, pies, cookies, donuts, cupcakes. These kinds of treats are welcome any time of year. However, if you give them a summer makeover, you're in for innovative and custom-made delights.

Du-par's, a more than 75-year-old award-winning Los Angeles bakery/restaurant chain, is famous for its pies. Fresh peach is featured during summer. However, Du-par's bakers don't stop there. They add a big scoop of the pie filling atop their equally famous donuts, to which they also turn the glaze peachy. It's an easy touch to duplicate at home (refrigerate, covered, for donut storage) with any of your additional favorite seasonal pie fillings, too, like cherry or peach now or pumpkin in the fall.

When it comes to cookies, though many of us often just serve the same traditional favorites repeatedly, cookies can make a good palette, too. Turn chocolate chip cookies tropical, for instance, by replacing dark chocolate chips with white, as well as sweetened shredded coconut, and replacing vanilla extract with pineapple juice.

Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne, authors of "The Cupcake Diaries," have done a big summer favor to both cupcakes and frosting by perfecting the addition of fresh strawberries. Give them a try:

FRESH STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES

1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

1/2 cup champagne (see Note)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (see Note)

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 1/ 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1 1/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature

Yields 36 mini cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two mini cupcake pans with 36 mini baking cups, or grease pans with butter if not using baking cups.

Soak the fresh strawberries in the champagne. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt on a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper and set aside.

Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

Combine the vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

Reduce the speed to low. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one third more of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another third of the flour mixture, followed by one third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and mix slowly until just combined.

Drain the strawberries of excess champagne and gently fold the strawberries into the batter, just until incorporated. Discard remaining champagne or serve as a sweet treat to adults.

Scoop batter into baking cups and bake for 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. If using paper baking cups, peel off all the paper baking cups once the cupcakes are cool. Good as is or frosted with fresh strawberry buttercream or vanilla or chocolate frosting.

Note: The authors suggest using the best champagne possible, and sweet rose champagne if available. For butter, if European style is available, it's recommended.

FRESH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM

32 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons whole milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh strawberries, diced and strained

Yields enough for one (double-layer) 9-inch round cake or equivalent amount of cupcakes.

Place all ingredients, except strawberries, in a stand mixer and whip for 5 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy. Using a spatula, fold in the diced strawberries.

AFTER-WORK GOURMET COOKBOOK SHELF

Picnic cookbooks often can make those who instead have to go to work jealous. Jeanne Kelley has come to the rescue with "The Portable Feast." It features creative meals for both "work and play."

Sandwiches and wraps, soups, salads and snacks and treats come in every shape, such as innovatively layered in mason jars. Choices like a "Bright Green Smoothie" can come along as an energizing work lunch (as it's filled with powerhouses such as spinach and yogurt) or a picnic beverage (it also includes frozen pineapple chunks, orange juice and slices of fresh ginger.)

Photo courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

Peach filling doesn't only have to go in pie. Consider giving your doughnuts or cookies summer makeovers by topping them peach pie filling.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.