Put wine, 1/2 cup water, sugar, honey, and cardamom pods in a small saucepan. With a small knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean and add to pan with pod and lemon zest. Bring to a boil over high heat, add apricots, reduce heat, and simmer until apricots just begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
Let cool in syrup.
Strain apricots before using, discarding cardamom pods, vanilla pod, and zest; save syrup for cake icing and to drizzle over ice cream or yogurt.
