Render Rails assets to string

application_helper.rb

module ApplicationHelper
  # thanks to http://blog.phusion.nl/2011/08/14/rendering-rails-3-1-assets-to-string/
  # you may need to change the owner of the tmp/cache/* directories to the web servers user
  # e.g. for Debian systems: `chown -R www-data:www-data tmp/cache/*`
  def render_asset(asset)
    Conferator::Application.assets.find_asset(asset).body.html_safe
  end
end

this doesn't work with assets with erb extension .. for eg.. blabla.js.erb
It does render, but the embedded ruby remains un-executed.