Or, maybe: 
use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my %hoh;
$hoh{element1} = {
                  start  => 1,
                  middle => 5
                 };

my @append = (
              {
               test => 1,
               key  => 3
              },
              {
               abc => 2,
               xyz => 5
              }
             );

@{$hoh{element1}}{map keys %{$_}, @append} = map values %{$_}, @append
+;

print Dumper \%hoh;

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In reply to Re: Adding to hash of hashes by Anonymous Monk
in thread Adding to hash of hashes by Dlamini

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