Works for me:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump::Streamer;

my %hoh = (
    a => {a1 => {a11 => 1, a12 => 1,}, b1 => {b11 => 1, b12 => 1,}, c1
+ => 1,},
    b => {a2 => {a22 => 2, a22 => 2,}, b2 => {b22 => 2, b22 => 2,}, c2
+ => 2,},
    );

Dump (get ());


sub get {
    return $hoh{'a'};
}
[download]

Prints:

$HASH1 = {
           a1 => {
                   a11 => 1,
                   a12 => 1
                 },
           b1 => {
                   b11 => 1,
                   b12 => 1
                 },
           c1 => 1
         };
[download]

How about you show us your equivelent code that doesn't work?