ColdBox provides you with a way to actually inject your layouts/views with custom UDF's, so they can act as helpers. This is called mixin methods and can be done via the includeUDF() method in the supertype or via the following settings:
applicationHelper - Global helper for layouts, views, and handlers
viewsHelper - Global helper for all layouts and views only
Additionally, applicationHelper can accept a list or array of helper files and will include each of them.
Caution If you try to inject a method that already exists, the call will fail and the CFML engine will throw an exception. Also, try not to abuse mixins, if you have too many consider refactoring into model objects or plugins.