diff --git a/api/RestfulService.php b/api/RestfulService.php
index e86d88237..c789d4c84 100644
--- a/api/RestfulService.php
+++ b/api/RestfulService.php
@@ -17,6 +17,27 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 	protected $customHeaders = array();
 	protected $proxy;
 	protected static $default_proxy;
+	protected static $default_curl_options = array();
+
+	/**
+	 * set a curl option that will be applied to all requests as default
+	 * {@see http://php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php#refsect1-function.curl-setopt-parameters}
+	 *
+	 * @param int $option The cURL opt Constant
+	 * @param mixed $value The cURL opt value
+	 */
+	public static function set_default_curl_option($option, $value) {
+		self::$default_curl_options[$option] = $value;
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * set many defauly curl options at once
+	 */
+	public static function set_default_curl_options($optionArray) {
+		foreach ($optionArray as $option => $value) {
+			self::set_default_curl_option($option, $value);
+		}
+	}
 	
 	/**
 	 * Sets default proxy settings for outbound RestfulService connections
@@ -119,7 +140,7 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 			$method,
 			$data,
 			array_merge((array)$this->customHeaders, (array)$headers),
-			$curlOptions,
+			array_merge(self::$default_curl_options,$curlOptions),
 			$this->getBasicAuthString()
 		));
 		
@@ -175,6 +196,7 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 		$timeout   = 5;
 		$sapphireInfo = new SapphireInfo(); 
 		$useragent = 'SilverStripe/' . $sapphireInfo->Version();
+		$curlOptions = array_merge(self::$default_curl_options, $curlOptions);
 
 		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
 		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
@@ -183,7 +205,6 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 		if(!ini_get('open_basedir')) curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,1);
 		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
 		//include headers in the response
-		//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
 		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
 
 		// Add headers
@@ -220,17 +241,9 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 
 		// Run request
 		$rawResponse = curl_exec($ch);
-		$curlError = curl_error($ch);
-		$responseHeaders = array();
-		$responseBody = '';
-		$this->extractResponse($ch, $rawResponse, $responseBody, $responseHeaders);
-
-		$statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE); 			
-		if($curlError !== '' || $statusCode == 0) $statusCode = 500;
+		$response = $this->extractResponse($ch, $rawResponse);
 		curl_close($ch);
 
-		$response = new RestfulService_Response($responseBody, $statusCode, $responseHeaders);
-
 		return $response;
 	}
 
@@ -279,14 +292,23 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 	 *
 	 * @param curl_handle $ch The curl handle for the request
 	 * @param string $rawResponse The raw response text
-	 * @param string &$body the body text
-	 * @param array &headers The header array
+	 *
+	 * @return RestfulService_Response The response object
 	 */
-	protected function extractResponse($ch, $rawResponse, &$body, &$headers) {
+	protected function extractResponse($ch, $rawResponse) {
+		//get the status code
+		$statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
+		//normalise the status code
+		if($curlError !== '' || $statusCode == 0) $statusCode = 500;
+		//calculate the length of the header and extract it
 		$headerLength = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE);
 		$rawHeaders = substr($rawResponse, 0, $headerLength);
+		//extract the body
 		$body = substr($rawResponse, $headerLength);
-		$headers = self::parse_raw_headers($rawHeaders);
+		//parse the headers
+		$headers = $this->parseRawHeaders($rawHeaders);
+		//return the response object
+		return new RestfulService_Response($body, $statusCode, $headers);
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -294,7 +316,7 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 	 *
 	 * Any header that we see more than once is turned into an array.
 	 *
-	 * This is meant to mimic htt_parse_headers {@link http://php.net/manual/en/function.http-parse-headers.php}
+	 * This is meant to mimic http_parse_headers {@link http://php.net/manual/en/function.http-parse-headers.php}
 	 * thanks to comment #77241 on that page for foundation of this
 	 *
 	 * @param string $rawHeaders The raw header string
@@ -315,12 +337,12 @@ class RestfulService extends ViewableData {
 						$headers[$match[1]] = array($headers[$match[1]]);
 					}
 					$headers[$match[1]][] = $match[2];
-                } else {
-                    $headers[$match[1]] = trim($match[2]);
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        return $headers;
+				} else {
+					$headers[$match[1]] = trim($match[2]);
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		return $headers;
 	}
 
 
@@ -514,7 +536,7 @@ class RestfulService_Response extends SS_HTTPResponse {
 	protected $simpleXML;
 	
 	/**
-	 * @var boolean It should be populated with cached content 
+	 * @var boolean It should be populated with cached request
 	 * when a request referring to this response was unsuccessful
 	 */
 	protected $cachedResponse = false;
@@ -556,6 +578,19 @@ class RestfulService_Response extends SS_HTTPResponse {
 		}
 		return false;
 	}
+
+	/**
+	 * @param string
+	 */
+	public function setCachedBody($content) {
+		Deprecation::notice('3.1', 'Setting the response body is now deprecated, set the cached request instead');
+		if (!$this->cachedResponse) {
+			$this->cachedResponse = new RestfulService_Response($content);
+		}
+		else {
+			$this->cachedResponse->setBody = $content;
+		}
+	}
 	
 	/**
 	 * @param string
diff --git a/tests/api/RestfulServiceTest.php b/tests/api/RestfulServiceTest.php
index dd490baff..4428fa735 100644
--- a/tests/api/RestfulServiceTest.php
+++ b/tests/api/RestfulServiceTest.php
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ class RestfulServiceTest extends SapphireTest {
 				'bar=foo'
 			)
 		);
-		$headerFunction = new ReflectionMethod('RestfulService', 'parse_raw_headers');
+		$headerFunction = new ReflectionMethod('RestfulService', 'parseRawHeaders');
 		$headerFunction->setAccessible(true);
 		$this->assertEquals(
 			$expected,