I bought some quark a couple of months ago and put it in my fridge. I had invited some friends over for dinner but things just didn't work out. The quark got hidden behind milk until I discovered it last night while looking for milk to make a pineapple upside down cake. I tasted it - sour! - but I have never tasted it before, so I thought I would use it as my milk substitute. I often have used "aged" cottage cheese and yogurt in cooking, things that were no longer palatable to eat directly but seem to do well after being cooked into a cake. In the past, this has always worked out well, but today, the pineapple upside down cake has a strange, slightly sour taste. Is it possible that it is the quark? or perhaps the pineapple...or something else? I cooked the cake at 350 for 40 minutes - and the cake part came out as it should. I did put vanilla in this time - I have never done that before. Is it possible that had a bad reaction?