diff --git a/spec/HTTPRequest.spec.js b/spec/HTTPRequest.spec.js
index abc5decf..0de220cb 100644
--- a/spec/HTTPRequest.spec.js
+++ b/spec/HTTPRequest.spec.js
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+'use strict';
+
 var httpRequest = require("../src/cloud-code/httpRequest"),
     bodyParser = require('body-parser'),
     express = require("express");
@@ -158,31 +160,50 @@ describe("httpRequest", () => {
       done();
     })
   });
+  it("should encode a JSON body by default", (done) => {
+    
+    let options = {
+      body: {"foo": "bar"}, 
+    }
+    
+    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody(options);
+    expect(result.body).toEqual('{"foo":"bar"}');
+    expect(result.headers['Content-Type']).toEqual('application/json');
+    done();
+    
+  })
+  
   it("should encode a JSON body", (done) => {
     
-    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody({"foo": "bar"}, {'Content-Type': 'application/json'});
-    expect(result).toEqual('{"foo":"bar"}');
+    let options = {
+      body: {"foo": "bar"}, 
+      headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
+    }
+    
+    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody(options);
+    expect(result.body).toEqual('{"foo":"bar"}');
     done();
     
   })
    it("should encode a www-form body", (done) => {
-    
-    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"}, {'cOntent-tYpe': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'});
-    expect(result).toEqual("foo=bar&bar=baz");
+    let options = {
+      body: {"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"},
+      headers: {'cOntent-tYpe': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
+    }
+    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody(options);
+    expect(result.body).toEqual("foo=bar&bar=baz");
     done();
   });
   it("should not encode a wrong content type", (done) => {
-    
-    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"}, {'cOntent-tYpe': 'mime/jpeg'});
-    expect(result).toEqual({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"});
+    let options = {
+      body:{"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"}, 
+      headers: {'cOntent-tYpe': 'mime/jpeg'}
+    }
+    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody(options);
+    expect(result.body).toEqual({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"});
     done();
   });
-  it("should not encode when missing content type", (done) => {
-    var result = httpRequest.encodeBody({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"}, {'X-Custom-Header': 'my-header'});
-    expect(result).toEqual({"foo": "bar", "bar": "baz"});
-    done();
-  });
-  
+
   it("should fail gracefully", (done) => {
     httpRequest({
       url: "http://not a good url",
diff --git a/src/cloud-code/httpRequest.js b/src/cloud-code/httpRequest.js
index 35af79ca..2dc5f979 100644
--- a/src/cloud-code/httpRequest.js
+++ b/src/cloud-code/httpRequest.js
@@ -2,25 +2,36 @@ var request = require("request"),
   querystring = require('querystring'),
   Parse = require('parse/node').Parse;
 
-var encodeBody = function(body, headers = {}) {
+var encodeBody = function(options = {}) {
+  let body = options.body;
+  let headers = options.headers || {};
   if (typeof body !== 'object') {
-    return body;
+    return options;
   }
   var contentTypeKeys = Object.keys(headers).filter((key) => {
     return key.match(/content-type/i) != null;
   });
 
-  if (contentTypeKeys.length == 1) {
+  if (contentTypeKeys.length == 0) {
+    // no content type
+    try {
+      options.body = JSON.stringify(body);
+      options.headers = options.headers || {};
+      options.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json';
+    } catch(e) {
+      // do nothing;
+    }
+  } else if (contentTypeKeys.length == 1) {
     var contentType = contentTypeKeys[0];
     if (headers[contentType].match(/application\/json/i)) {
-      body = JSON.stringify(body);
+      options.body = JSON.stringify(body);
     } else if(headers[contentType].match(/application\/x-www-form-urlencoded/i)) {
-      body = Object.keys(body).map(function(key){
+      options.body = Object.keys(body).map(function(key){
         return `${key}=${encodeURIComponent(body[key])}`
       }).join("&");
     }
   }
-  return body;
+  return options;
 }
 
 module.exports = function(options) {
@@ -32,7 +43,7 @@ module.exports = function(options) {
   delete options.success;
   delete options.error;
   delete options.uri; // not supported
-  options.body = encodeBody(options.body, options.headers);
+  options = encodeBody(options);
   // set follow redirects to false by default
   options.followRedirect = options.followRedirects == true;
   // support params options