An Ayr ice cream maker has been crowned the UK champion for his chocolate ice cream - the second time the award has been won by the firm.

The Mancini family has been making ice cream for more than a century and now Philip Mancini, who runs the Royal Cafe and Filippo's Bar in Ayr, has won the ultimate award for the second time in six years.

The award has been made by The Ice Cream Alliance - the trade association for the £1bn ice cream industry - who organise the  National Ice Cream Competition.

Mancini said: "This is the ultimate accolade from the ice cream industry. It is a huge honour.

"I have been an ice cream man all my life and I'm so passionate about ice cream that I'm sure I have raspberry ripple running through my veins!"

Philip's ice creams have won so many awards over the years that he has become known as King Cone.

"I won the champions title in 2009 and that was one of the greatest achievements in my life," he said.

"There are so many fantastic ice cream makers in the UK that I never thought I could win this again. Right now I don't think there could be a happier man in Scotland!"

Philip, whose vanilla dairy ice cream was also voted the best in show, believes the key to his win is a special technique that he has developed to extract the maximum flavour from his ingredients.

"I never stop trying to improve our products and I have a technique which enables me to bring out the maximum flavour from the high quality cocoa that we use for our chocolate ice cream."

Zelica Carr, Chief Executive of The Ice Cream Alliance, said: "Many congratulations to Philip and his family for this wonderful win. It is through the dedication of people like Philip that the UK produces some of the world's finest ice creams."