diff --git a/core/ghost.js b/core/ghost.js
index d822f46c63..d37364e67f 100644
--- a/core/ghost.js
+++ b/core/ghost.js
@@ -93,17 +93,22 @@ Ghost = function () {
             config: function () { return config[process.env.NODE_ENV]; },
 
             // there's no management here to be sure this has loaded
-            settings: function () { return instance.settingsCache; },
+            settings: function (key) {
+                if (key) {
+                    return instance.settingsCache[key].value;
+                }
+                return instance.settingsCache;
+            },
             dataProvider: models,
             blogGlobals:  function () {
                 /* this is a bit of a hack until we have a better way to combine settings and config
                  * this data is what becomes globally available to themes */
                 return {
                     url: instance.config().url,
-                    title: instance.settings().title.value,
-                    description: instance.settings().description.value,
-                    logo: instance.settings().logo.value,
-                    cover: instance.settings().cover.value
+                    title: instance.settings('title'),
+                    description: instance.settings('description'),
+                    logo: instance.settings('logo'),
+                    cover: instance.settings('cover')
                 };
             },
             statuses: function () { return statuses; },
@@ -196,16 +201,9 @@ Ghost.prototype.readSettingsResult = function (result) {
     return when(_.map(result.models, function (member) {
         if (!settings.hasOwnProperty(member.attributes.key)) {
             var val = {};
-            if (member.attributes.key === 'activeTheme') {
-                member.attributes.value = member.attributes.value.substring(member.attributes.value.lastIndexOf('/') + 1);
-                val.value = member.attributes.value;
-                val.type = member.attributes.type;
-                settings[member.attributes.key] = val;
-            } else {
-                val.value = member.attributes.value;
-                val.type = member.attributes.type;
-                settings[member.attributes.key] = val;
-            }
+            val.value = member.attributes.value;
+            val.type = member.attributes.type;
+            settings[member.attributes.key] = val;
         }
     })).then(function () {
         return when(instance.paths().availableThemes).then(function (themes) {
@@ -353,11 +351,11 @@ Ghost.prototype.initTheme = function (app) {
             // self.globals is a hack til we have a better way of getting combined settings & config
             hbsOptions = {templateOptions: {data: {blog: self.blogGlobals()}}};
 
-            if (!self.themeDirectories.hasOwnProperty(self.settings().activeTheme.value)) {
+            if (!self.themeDirectories.hasOwnProperty(self.settings('activeTheme'))) {
                 // Throw an error if the theme is not available...
                 // TODO: move this to happen on app start
-                errors.logAndThrowError('The currently active theme ' + self.settings().activeTheme.value + ' is missing.');
-            } else if (self.themeDirectories[self.settings().activeTheme.value].hasOwnProperty('partials')) {
+                errors.logAndThrowError('The currently active theme ' + self.settings('activeTheme') + ' is missing.');
+            } else if (self.themeDirectories[self.settings('activeTheme')].hasOwnProperty('partials')) {
                 // Check that the theme has a partials directory before trying to use it
                 hbsOptions.partialsDir = path.join(self.paths().activeTheme, 'partials');
             }
diff --git a/core/server/controllers/frontend.js b/core/server/controllers/frontend.js
index 90c9315791..19857f1cd0 100644
--- a/core/server/controllers/frontend.js
+++ b/core/server/controllers/frontend.js
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ frontendControllers = {
     'homepage': function (req, res) {
         // Parse the page number
         var pageParam = req.params.page !== undefined ? parseInt(req.params.page, 10) : 1,
-            postsPerPage = parseInt(ghost.settings().postsPerPage.value, 10),
+            postsPerPage = parseInt(ghost.settings('postsPerPage'), 10),
             options = {};
 
         // No negative pages
@@ -67,10 +67,10 @@ frontendControllers = {
         // Initialize RSS
         var siteUrl = ghost.config().url,
             feed = new RSS({
-                title: ghost.settings().title.value,
-                description: ghost.settings().description.value,
+                title: ghost.settings('title'),
+                description: ghost.settings('description'),
                 generator: 'Ghost v' + res.locals.version,
-                author: ghost.settings().author.value,
+                author: ghost.settings('author'),
                 feed_url: siteUrl + '/rss/',
                 site_url: siteUrl,
                 ttl: '60'
diff --git a/core/server/helpers/index.js b/core/server/helpers/index.js
index ff09154f88..e3de0b76a3 100644
--- a/core/server/helpers/index.js
+++ b/core/server/helpers/index.js
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ coreHelpers = function (ghost) {
     ghost.registerThemeHelper('e', function (key, defaultString, options) {
         var output;
 
-        if (ghost.settings().defaultLang.value === 'en' && _.isEmpty(options.hash) && !ghost.settings().forceI18n.value) {
+        if (ghost.settings('defaultLang') === 'en' && _.isEmpty(options.hash) && !ghost.settings('forceI18n')) {
             output = defaultString;
         } else {
             output = ghost.polyglot().t(key, options.hash);
diff --git a/core/server/mail.js b/core/server/mail.js
index 5468918c98..d41f08a3a5 100644
--- a/core/server/mail.js
+++ b/core/server/mail.js
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ GhostMailer.prototype.send = function (message) {
     }
 
     var from = 'ghost-mailer@' + url.parse(this.ghost.config().url).hostname,
-        to = message.to || this.ghost.settings().email.value,
+        to = message.to || this.ghost.settings('email'),
         sendMail = nodefn.lift(this.transport.sendMail.bind(this.transport));
 
     message = _.extend(message, {
diff --git a/core/shared/lang/i18n.js b/core/shared/lang/i18n.js
index dc02e31f28..3eb8a4c69d 100644
--- a/core/shared/lang/i18n.js
+++ b/core/shared/lang/i18n.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ var fs = require('fs'),
 I18n = function (ghost) {
 
     // TODO: validate
-    var lang = ghost.settings().defaultLang.value,
+    var lang = ghost.settings('defaultLang'),
         path = ghost.paths().lang,
         langFilePath = path + lang + '.json';