diff --git a/falcon/testing/base.py b/falcon/testing/base.py
index 9767175..e36a331 100644
--- a/falcon/testing/base.py
+++ b/falcon/testing/base.py
@@ -69,13 +69,17 @@ class TestBase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         super(TestBase, self).tearDown()
 
-    def simulate_request(self, path, **kwargs):
+    def simulate_request(self, path, decode=None, **kwargs):
         """ Simulates a request.
 
         Simulates a request to the API for testing purposes.
 
         Args:
             path: Request path for the desired resource
+            decode: If set to a character encoding, such as 'utf-8',
+                the method will assume the response is a single
+                byte string and will decode it and return a single
+                wide string instead of the raw WSGI response iterable.
             kwargs: Same as falcon.testing.create_environ()
 
         """
@@ -83,5 +87,13 @@ class TestBase(unittest.TestCase):
         if not path:
             path = '/'
 
-        return self.api(create_environ(path=path, **kwargs),
-                        self.srmock)
+        result = self.api(create_environ(path=path, **kwargs),
+                          self.srmock)
+
+        if decode is not None:
+            if not result:
+                return ''
+
+            return result[0].decode(decode)
+
+        return result
diff --git a/tests/test_httperror.py b/tests/test_httperror.py
index 0b31399..fcd1af7 100644
--- a/tests/test_httperror.py
+++ b/tests/test_httperror.py
@@ -141,8 +141,7 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
 
         # Try it with Accept: */*
         headers['Accept'] = '*/*'
-        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers)
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, decode='utf-8')
 
         self.assertEqual(self.srmock.status, headers['X-Error-Status'])
         self.assertThat(lambda: json.loads(body), Not(raises(ValueError)))
@@ -150,8 +149,7 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
 
         # Now try it with application/json
         headers['Accept'] = 'application/json'
-        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers)
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, decode='utf-8')
 
         self.assertEqual(self.srmock.status, headers['X-Error-Status'])
         self.assertThat(lambda: json.loads(body), Not(raises(ValueError)))
@@ -206,8 +204,8 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
             },
         }
 
-        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, method='POST')
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, method='POST',
+                                     decode='utf-8')
 
         self.assertEqual(self.srmock.status, falcon.HTTP_403)
         self.assertThat(lambda: json.loads(body), Not(raises(ValueError)))
@@ -228,8 +226,8 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
             },
         }
 
-        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, method='PUT')
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/fail', headers=headers, method='PUT',
+                                     decode='utf-8')
 
         self.assertEqual(self.srmock.status, falcon.HTTP_792)
         self.assertThat(lambda: json.loads(body), Not(raises(ValueError)))
@@ -249,12 +247,11 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
         }
 
         self.api.add_route('/unicode', unicode_resource)
-        body = self.simulate_request('/unicode')
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/unicode', decode='utf-8')
 
         self.assertTrue(unicode_resource.called)
         self.assertEqual(self.srmock.status, falcon.HTTP_792)
-        self.assertEqual(expected_body, json.loads(body, 'utf-8'))
+        self.assertEqual(expected_body, json.loads(body))
 
     def test_401(self):
         self.api.add_route('/401', UnauthorizedResource())
@@ -319,8 +316,7 @@ class TestHTTPError(testing.TestBase):
 
     def test_503(self):
         self.api.add_route('/503', ServiceUnavailableResource())
-        body = self.simulate_request('/503')
-        body = body[0]
+        body = self.simulate_request('/503', decode='utf-8')
 
         expected_body = {
             'title': 'Oops',
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index 4e7fb59..e25419b 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ class TestFalconUtils(testtools.TestCase):
             self.assertEqual(expect, actual)
 
 
-class TestFalconTesting(testtools.TestCase):
+class TestFalconTesting(falcon.testing.TestBase):
     """Catch some uncommon branches not covered elsewhere."""
 
     def test_unicode_path_in_create_environ(self):
@@ -179,3 +179,7 @@ class TestFalconTesting(testtools.TestCase):
     def test_none_header_value_in_create_environ(self):
         env = falcon.testing.create_environ('/', headers={'X-Foo': None})
         self.assertEqual(env['HTTP_X_FOO'], '')
+
+    def test_decode_empty_result(self):
+        body = self.simulate_request('/', decode='utf-8')
+        self.assertEqual(body, '')