Torres has been a revelation for Liverpool following his big-money move from Atletico Madrid last summer and he was desperate to break the record held by Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
The Spain international got his just rewards late in the second half and made it a memorable end to the season for Liverpool when he added to Andriy Voronin's opening strike to hand them all three points.
The defeat for Tottenham meant they failed to finish in the top half of the table and it is certain to be a summer of rebuilding for Spanish coach Juande Ramos.
All eyes were on the directors' box before the game as Liverpool co-owner George Gillett was sitting alongside Rick Parry, the first game he has seen since the Champions League win over Arsenal at the start of April. There was no sign of his fellow co-owner Tom Hicks.
On the field, Liverpool almost got off to a dream start on nine minutes when Voronin saw his overhead kick force a fine save from Radek Cerny diving away to his left.
The away side came close again on 13 minutes when Steven Gerrard's ball picked out Ryan Babel, whose powerful shot was parried away by Cerny.
Dimitar Berbatov was desperate to make an impact for Spurs in possibly his last game at White Hart Lane and showed all his class on 14 minutes when he produced a superb back-heel which almost picked out his strike partner Robbie Keane inside the box, but the Liverpool defence just managed to clear the ball away.
The Bulgaria striker was in the thick of the action again on 25 minutes. Jamie O'Hara's corner picked out Berbatov, whose close-range header forced a superb one handed save from Jose Reina diving full stretch away to his right-hand side.
Torres had been kept quiet for the majority of the first half, but he slowly began to make his presence felt and saw a close-range shot kept out by the legs of Cerny on 49 minutes.
It was proving to be an open affair and both Keane and Steed Malbranque had chances to put Tottenham into the lead.
But it was Liverpool who broke the deadlock after 69 minutes. Alvaro Arbeloa played the ball into Voronin, who held off the challenge of Michael Dawson and struck the ball past Cerny.
Liverpool keeper Reina made the save of the game on 71 minutes. Berbatov fired a powerful half-volley from the edge of the box which looked destined for the top corner, but Reina made a superb one-handed save to tip the ball over the bar.
It was that man Torres who stole all the headlines once again when he scored the crucial second on 73 minutes.
Yossi Benayoun's ball picked out Torres, who cut inside Dawson and made no mistake sliding the ball past Cerny to make it a memorable first season in the English game.
Home defender Alan Hutton nearly put the ball past his own keeper on 76 minutes with a backward header, but Cerny just did enough to keep the ball out.
Torres then saw his shot from the edge of the box cannon back off the bar on 79 minutes, but it was to prove a memorable day for the Liverpool forward.