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Guadeloupe
Shortcrust pastry, coconut jam, a golden génoise — and an entire archipelago recounting, at the port of Terre-de-Haut, the very same tourment d'amour.
Pastry or bakery speciality from Guadeloupe.
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According to the most widespread legend, relayed by the Comité du Tourisme des Îles de Guadeloupe itself, the Tourment d'amour was originally prepared by the wives of Saintois sailors to comfort their husbands upon their return from a rough day at sea — the cake's name deriving from the emotional torment endured by these women during their husbands' absence. A variation of the same story claims, on the contrary, that the cake rewarded the sailor upon his return, battered by a thousand torments far from his beloved. The tourist board itself presents this origin as uncertain: an oral tradition, never proven.
Even today, in Terre-de-Haut, women vendors sell the Tourment d'amour as boats arrive and depart, handmade and individually wrapped; few visitors board the return ferry without their parcel.
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However, local historian Raymond Joyeux disputes the cake's strictly Saintois parentage, drawing on family testimony gathered from the grandson of one of its key figures. According to this account, the recipe for a génoise sponge filled with coconut jam was developed around 1925 in Baie-Mahault, on Grande-Terre, by Eugénie Célany — a pastry baker known locally as 'Man Nini' — before arriving in Terre-de-Haut following her remarriage to a widowed Saintois.
The cake, originally baked in a bread oven in a large mould and sold in portions, only took on its present individual form in the 1960s, when two of her former pastry assistants, equipped with the first small fluted round moulds and individual gas ovens, began selling them individually from their doorsteps. The name 'Tourment d'amour' itself is thought to date only from this period of popularisation, well after the recipe was first invented.
Whether Saintois by birth or merely by adoption, the pastry has achieved official recognition: since May 2013, 'Tourment d'amour' has been a registered trademark at the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle, on the initiative of the commune of Terre-de-Haut, to protect the name against counterfeiting. This protection applies only to the name, however: it is not based on any production specifications, and other West Indian houses, such as Maison Suréna in Fort-de-France, Martinique, have long marketed a pastry of the same name and a similar style.
Appearance
A small, individual round cake with a domed, golden surface after baking, sold individually wrapped.
Aroma
A sweet fragrance of coconut and vanilla, released as soon as it leaves the oven.
Taste
The tropical sweetness of coconut enhanced with sugar, vanilla, and a dash of rum, with variations offering the tangy note of guava or the roundness of banana.
Texture
A crisp shortcrust pastry base, a soft and luscious jam filling, topped with a light and airy génoise sponge.
the pastry's most traditional and recognisable filling.
a fruity version, among the most common after coconut.
an equally widespread variation, with a rounder sweetness.
a rarer variation, with a more pronounced acidity.
Spread a generous layer of tropical jam — most often coconut, sometimes guava or banana — over the cooled pastry base.
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The Comité du Tourisme des Îles de Guadeloupe recommends enjoying it at room temperature or slightly warm, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Sold individually in single wrappers, it can be eaten on the go while strolling through the village of Terre-de-Haut, but it also keeps well enough to be brought back as a souvenir, given to loved ones back on the 'mainland'.
No official sign of quality or origin (PDO (AOP)/AOC/PGI (IGP)/TSG (STG)/Label Rouge). Since May 2013, the name 'Tourment d'amour' has been protected as a registered trademark at the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle, on the initiative of the commune of Terre-de-Haut — a protection of the name against counterfeiting, without production specifications, which does not prevent other West Indian houses from marketing a very similar pastry under the same name.
No producer is listed for this product yet.